Pangaea Green Wave Project - Food

Hong Kong, China

written by Gregory ANTONO and Romeo WONG

On Christmas Eve 2011, the first mini YEP meeting in Hong Kong began at 9am at Hong Kong station. It was a packed day ahead: in light of the Food Greenwave, we wanted to combine our Urban Raid with campaigning against shark fin soup. We enlisted the help of Shark Savers Hong Kong to obtain pledge cards and flyers, and requested for a shark costume from the Hong Kong Shark Foundation. We intended to grab people’s attention on the busy streets of Hong Kong in the shark costume, and get them to sign pledge cards to campaign against shark fin soup.

Upon meeting at 9am, we were immediately faced with our first challenge of the day: we were told by the Hong Kong Shark Foundation earlier that morning that the shark costume was not in the right condition for our use. Despite this major setback, we decided to do up placards for the same purpose anyway, and carry these placards on our Urban Raid. We spent some time doing up these placards: campaigning against shark fin soup on one side; promoting the Young Explorers Programme on the other.

At around 11am, we set off on our Urban Raid – we were going to cover most of the busiest parts of Hong Kong on foot. The first checkpoint was the Dried Seafood Market. Shark fins could be found in almost every shop in this district – there were even billboards on the main street promoting shark fin soup! 

On our way to the next checkpoint (Statue Square in Central), we passed through the Bird’s Nest and Ginseng (other Chinese delicacies) district, Wing Lok Street. We decided to stay on Wing Lok Street in particular and by splitting up on either side of the road, we counted the number of stores which sold shark fins. On this street alone, there were a total of 30 stores selling shark fin – and they weren’t even part of the Dried Seafood Market!

We spent the rest of the day talking to both tourists and locals about the Young Explorers Program and got them to sign the pledge cards. Other checkpoints we passed through were the Hong Kong Park, Southorn Park in Wan Chai and Causeway Bay. We ended our Urban Raid at Tsim Sha Tsui by taking the ferry across the harbor from Wan Chai ferry terminal. There were hordes of people at Tsim Sha Tsui, both tourists and locals, who were there to celebrate the coming of Christmas.

While the first Hong Kong YEP meeting was a small affair this time, we have come up with ideas and plans for future meetings! With the focus being in the city this time, we look forward to shifting the focus to the prevalent nature in the region, possibly by organizing a hike/trek on one of the mountains or on one of the outlying islands. This YEP meeting served as a stepping stone for future meetings and events, and we certainly look forward to getting more Asian YEPs to join us in the future!

Hong Kong YEP Meeting

Gdańsk, Poland

written by Anna KONOBRODZKA

Young Explorers from Poland help with organizing a Christmas Eve for the poor, homeless and lonely people.

The following Young Explorers took part in this event: Anna Konobrodzka (Amazon Selection camp), Anna Gieron (Canada Selection camp), Aleksander Spychala, Zofia Drapella (New Zealand expedition).

Our celebration of this Solstice Greenwave was held on Thursday, 22.12.2011 in Gdańsk, Poland. The team of young adults gathered at Church of Saint Nicolas that was organizing the ‘Christmas Eve for Poor and Homeless people’ and there we started ACTING! 

At 11 am we gathered in the church and started unpacking all the food that was collected from sponsors/bought. Fruits, tea, chocolate, sweets, clothes, personal hygiene items and much more was what we then had to separate and put into paper bags. We never use the plastic bags again for this purpose fortunately. We spent about 3 hours packing all the Christmas packages.

Then, we had to put each package into storage in a different room of the church. We created a line of people and we were passing the packages to one another like a well-tuned machine, over 1000 packages went through our hands! We surely worked on our arm muscles because some of the packages were very heavy!

After an hour- long break, we gathered up in the kitchen to start the preparation of Polish traditional dish – BIGOS. It consists of sour cabbage, Polish kielbasa ( something like sausage) and onion. Our task was to wash the cabbage, cut it into smaller pieces and to do the same with other ingredients. Soon, the sharp smell of onions was in the air and everybody in the whole room cried their’s eyes out! But after a while we managed to deal with the problem – as it turns out when you put an onion, after peeling it, into the cold water, it does not anymore make you cry. ( so we LEARNt something ). When it was done, we put everything into huge pots and prepared it for cooking.

Meanwhile, there was many people helping us out! We used this occasion to tell them about PANGAEA and YEP. 

All in all, those packages and this meal will feed over 1000 poor, homeless people. We are so happy that we could do this and with our help those people can spend a nice Christmas Eve with warm and yummy food.

Pangaea Green Wave - Food Theme - KONOBRODZKA Anna

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

1-3 / 12 items

Hilter am Teutoburger Wald, Germany

written by Konstantin SERGIJENKO

On the 21st of December at 5 o'clock the Green Wave started at my House.

The organization and implementation (of the Green Wave) has been complicated by many problems.

On the 16th of December the approval of my project by the youth centre has been annulled again and I had to reorganize the whole thing before my travel to the Yep Meeting in Freiburg started.

After some phone calls I decided that the Green Wave will take place at my house and I borrowed a projector.

When I came from school the children were already waiting in the front of my house.

I was really surprised to see this varied group - ten persons with different nationalities: Turkish, Russian, Kurdish and German.

Some of them come from socially weak families and I even had seen some of them smoking and drinking alcohol in the front of the supermarket, so I was happy that especially this kind of children came.

They were all between 14 and 18 years old.

I prepared the room for watching the movie: We feed the World.

I offered them some tea and cookies while watching and explaining them the scenes which they didn't understood told them about some local problems which are quite similar to the problematic shown in the film.

I payed attention to their faces and noticed their emotions when they watched a scene where bread was thrown away or chickens were killed fully automatically.

They were really impressed.

Later we baked a cake and Christmas Cookies, in appearance related to the project.

Some kids had never made a cake with their own hands before.

We continued discussing the movie and their thoughts about it.

At nine o'clock the Green Wave ended and I got a really positive feedback from everybody and I'm glad to be able to say that I might won some of these for engage into future projects. Besides I am hoping that my work is having some good influence on their sense for environment and nature.

Pangaea Green Wave - Food Theme - SERGIJENKO Konstantin

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

1-3 / 11 items

Innsbruck, Austria

written by Mario LOESCHER and Sophia PAUL

In relation to the GreenWave topic “food”, we decided to try an experiment. We wanted to eat vegetarian from the first December to the day before Christmas. On Christmas, there would be a dinner with meat that would mark the end of the three weeks. Sophia’s mum joined in as well, but the rest of our families (except for Mario’s sister who is a vegetarian anyways) didn’t accept the challenge.

We won’t bother you with all the stories that we experienced but we’ll tell you some of them.

In the first week, we decided to go out. Have a nice dinner in some restaurant. We searched the web, scanned menus and were quite frustrated to find out that we could not eat 80 or 90% of what the restaurants offered. There was meat everywhere! And the only vegetarian restaurant that we found was way too expensive… Eventually we went to a restaurant we knew already and ate vegetarian pizza. In short, the Tyrolean cuisine offers the following dishes: dumplings, soup, “Kasspatzln” and “Spinatspatzln” (homemade Austrian pasta, baked with cheese and onions or with spinach), ”Schlutzkrapfen” and “Kaiserschmarrn”. That’s not much!

As both of us had university courses, we sometimes had lunch at the canteen. That was kind of frustrating too because they only offer one vegetarian dish, which is often not good at all and if it is good, then it is sold out soon. The alternative is to eat pasta with boring tomato sauce…

The reactions of other people that we told about the experiment were different. Some couldn’t understand it at all, especially that we just did it for a short period and that we didn’t eat fish and seafood either. Others, for example Sophia’s doctor, found it awesome, others weren’t interested in it at all.

In total, both of us are happy to have made this experience and we will eat more vegetarian in future for sure. We think that nowadays people in general eat too much meat. If we would write down how much that is in one month, we would be shocked for sure. You don’t have to become a vegetarian but start thinking when you eat meat. Isn’t there another option for your dinner? Buy a vegetarian cooking book an be astonished what possibilities there are to do without meat!

---

 

Kraków, Poland

written by Zuzanna ŁUKASIK

This Green Wave event was especially meaningful to me, as in my country, Poland, no people should starve. Poland produces enough nutrition products to export them all over the world and yet, according to the research held by Polish Humanitarian Organisation, over 150 000 of children come hungry to school, and for almost half of them, a meal at school is the only one they have during the day.

The reason for this situation is the waste of food that occurs all over the world. This is why I have decided to celebrate the Winter Solstice Green Wave by holding a presentation about reasonable food management, food programs around the globe and giving tips on how to avoid wasting nourishment. The second action was organising, together with the Student's Council, a food market that accompanied a charity concert we had on the last day before Christmas break. Students were asked to bake cakes and cookies for sale. To each piece of cake or portion of cookies, there was a little card with information about food attached. It included interesting facts about food consumption and production and shocking statistics about hunger. We used a poster designed by Manuel Loffler to get interest. All the money raised during the concert and the food market were given to a neighbour orphanage.

I have attached pictures from the Green Wave, the poster designed by Manu and an essay about hunger I wrote a while ago, that was printed in school's student's magazine.

Pangaea Green Wave - Food Theme - Zuzanna ŁUKASIK

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

1-3 / 6 items

---

 

 

Sopot, Poland

written by Monika CHOJNACKA

Preparations for this special day had started for a long time before it. On December 21 st I woke up early and started cooking a tasty breakfast out of the 'garbage' ! Of course it was fresh and warm meal. I used leftovers, unnecessary food destined for a dumpster- a dish out of stale bread, piece of onion and two yolks left after eggs.

My family did not know what to do with these ingredients, so it was a task for me- I love making something out  of nothing. Every single time my mom wants to throw away any leftovers I am not letting her to do this- immediately I have dozens of ideas how to reuse them. It is a pleasure for me- I find cooking as one of my hobbies, also it sets off my creativity.

I made scrambled eggs with cruttons, onion and bio Parmesan ( I promote fair trade and bio food, which is good for the environment). It was a great fun making it! After preparing the meal I took it to homeless people, to place where they gather, with an inscription: "Merry Christmas 2011 !". This idea connects my two passions: cooking and helping other people!

I save food that would waste, because so many people are suffering from hunger, starting with my neighbourhood, not mentioning India or African countries. I just can not let that happen! Fresh but useless in my kitchen food can not finish in the bin, when we can use it once more!

I treat homeless people to prepared tasty meals by giving them in person or leaving warm food near their shelters.

Next, I organized a meeting with family, friends and proposed packing Christmas presents differently this year- with old newspapers! Everyone got very excited listening to it! I made my gifts earlier and showed them my ideas. The guests really loved it and promised to do the same! It is very uplifting seeing effects of my efforts.

And last, but not least- me, friends of mine and family gathered and watched movies about food- "Food, Inc." and "Fresh". They are about production of food, its origin, connected problems- also with transport. We were really moved by the content outlined in these films. Thanks to them our knowledge and awareness have risen.

It was a very tough day but worth my efforts. I involved many people in this project and feel that I put a piece of me in this wave. I inspired my friends and now I am even more motivated to act! These short actions will have long-term effects.

I cannot wait until next Pangaea Green Wave Project and any other ideas that connect people with one goal- to preserve our unique Earth!!!

Pangaea Green Wave - Food Theme - CHOJNACKA Monika

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

1-3 / 7 items

 

Kraljevo, Serbia

written by Nadja VUKASINOVIC 

Our second Green wave didn’t take place on 21st of December, because School day of school “IV kraljevacki bataljon” (in which actions were organized) was celebrated, but it was postponed for 28th of December. Mostly third graders (around 30 kids) in this action participated.

First, we were cooks: to show how healthy food can be tasty as well (because most of the kids don’t think so), we made healthy dishes out of fruit that they brought. It was easy working with them because they had some experience with actions like this. We made salads, juices, Danish pastry made from brown flour, not the white one and different decorations for which we used vegetables and fruits that we ate afterwards.

Children were very motivated and with their teachers and my help, they did a great job. After “cooking class”, we went to the amphitheatre where whole 7th grade joined us to hear a doctor specialized in healthy nutrition give a presentation on this subject.

Most of the students seemed shocked with some facts about our life style and how much does food affect it which shows that people are not informed as well as they should be. All of the kids were eager to try dishes that their younger friends made, so when the presentation ended they hurried to taste the dishes and concluded that healthy food, with less meat, can be tasty as well. It was nice to see so many children in one place, deciding that they will eat healthier and won’t buy too much food, but just how much they need.

Maybe you know that this school has a German Language Club and they didn’t miss a chance to contribute to this Green Wave. They made a poster in German about ways to help the Earth by eating healthy food.

In the end I put some facts about healthy food and world hunger that I found, in students snacks (in our schools, kids get snack to eat during their big break). Students are not informed enough about this subject, so the main goal of this Green Wave was to inform them about ways to save themselves but others as well by eating healthier food.

In my opinion this action was successful, kids loved it and learned a lot of new things. :)

Pangaea Green Wave - Food Theme - VUKASINOVIC Nadja