5 Ways to Celebrate World Food Day in Your Classroom

After your students are finished eating, stand by the trash with one or two helpers. Ask everyone to put any uneaten food into a bucket rather than throwing it out. Then, weigh the bucket. After weighing it, do the math to figure out how many pounds could be wasted each month, or over a whole school year.

Ask your students to brainstorm how they might cut down on food that gets thrown out and how minimizing waste can help other people and the environment. Check out these sites for more info and ideas on how to minimize waste and repurpose leftove'rs.

Show the Hungry Planet photos to your students in class. Discuss the differences in what families eat in other nations. What trends do your students notice? What surprises them?

Work with your students to create posters that illustrate their visions of #ZeroHunger. Scan or photograph the posters and submit them to the Unites Nations Food and Agriculture Organization World Food Day poster contest. Don’t forget that entries are due by October 19^th!

Learn about Heifer’s Tanzania School Milk Program and download the Milk Money resources. Your class can learn more about Tanzania, nutrition and students who are benefitting form the program. Then brainstorm with your students how they can raise ‘Milk Money’ to deliver nutritious milk to students in need.

We all have our favorite children’s books about food, but if you’re looking for a few new titles set in the US and abroad, these are some of our favorites!

Hot Hot Roti for Dada-ji, by F.Zia, Illustrations by Ken Min

Dragons Love Tacos, by Adam Rubin, Illustrations by Daniel Salmieri 

Blueberries for Sal, by Robert McCloskey

First Book of Sushi, by Amy Wilson Sanger

Hola Jalapeno, by Amy Wilson Sanger

Stone Soup, by Ann Mcgovern, Illustrations by Winslow Pinney Pels

Strega Nona, by Tomie dePaola


By Liz Ellis, Heifer Community Engagement Coordinator