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Recovered crooked vegetables

Use crooked vegetables creatively

In Germany alone, around 18 million tons of food are thrown away every year - that is clearly too much. The Union Restlos Glücklich eV from Berlin aims to appreciate food again. Numerous educational projects should help to raise awareness of the topic.

Cooking courses for all ages

In the cooking courses, participants learn how easy and creative it is to use food sustainably and how much fun it is. The participants also receive specific tips on shopping and correct storage that prevent waste. Valuable background information such as the difference between the best-before date and the use-by date complement the courses. In addition to the adult classes, there are also offers for children and young people. Restlos Glücklich also specifically goes to schools to cook and convey the topic in a playful way.

Volunteer and cook at dinner evening

Monthly dinner evenings

In addition, the themed dinner evenings usually take place on the first Saturday of each month. Delicious and special three-course menus are conjured up from rescued organic foods. Whether crooked vegetables, incorrectly labeled goods or incorrect deliveries, everything is processed here. So less is wasted and more is used. All menus are vegetarian and can also be prepared vegan on request.

All beautiful projects, we think so. So we met Nina, who is responsible for public relations, for an interview and asked her our three questions.

1. What was or is your motivation behind Restless Happy?

We are mainly volunteers and in our free time for Restlos Glücklich and as an association we have the common goal of appreciating food again. With our projects we want to encourage people to consume more consciously and to use more. We offer educational projects and cooking classes. We cook with excess food and give it a second chance. In our workshops we give people a connection to our food. Regardless of whether the carrot is crooked or the banana has brown spots - every food is valuable.

Learn how to deal with food in a playful way in the cooking courses

2. What do you advise our readers: What can we do specifically for a better future?

In general, a better future always starts with oneself and as the saying goes: the world is full of opportunities and solutions. In terms of food waste, 18 million tons of food is thrown away in Germany every year and the sad thing is that around 9,8 million tons of that is avoidable. Around 313 kilograms of edible food ends up in the trash every second. That means in turn: we throw away every eighth food that we buy – and every individual could change that for themselves.

As an association, we try to give an impetus to take a closer look at our own consumption habits and to question them: we want to encourage people to consume more consciously and to use more and to have fun trying things out before opening the lid of the bin out of habit. One of the most discarded foods is bread. Instead of putting the old leftover bread in the organic waste bin the next time, you could bake bread muffins and bring them to the next barbecue party. You can find a recipe for example here.

Crooked fruits and vegetables can be used wonderfully

3. How do travel and sustainability fit together for you?

Every single member of Restlos Glücklich certainly has their own opinion and tips. So I can only speak for myself. In general, I think that travel and sustainability go very well together, as long as you travel on a low-cost plane without a ticket and travel beyond all-inclusive hotels or cruise ships. A sustainable lifestyle is really important to me and I still like to travel a lot.

I was just on a city trip to Copenhagen and Malmö and took the train there from Berlin, which works wonderfully. I spent the night in climate-neutral accommodation, had self-made, plastic-free provisions and was out and about in the cities on foot or by bike. There are now a large number of “green travel agencies” and, of course, Good Travel, about which you can get good information and inspiration.

You can find more information on the website of Totally happy

The next dinner evening will take place on September 2nd. More on this here

Photo credits: Claudia Goedke (opener), Maria Wagner (pickled vegetables), RESTLOS GLÜCKLICH

Lisa helped set up the Good Travel Blog and will write for us as a freelance author in the future. She is passionate about traveling and dancing around the world with a small ecological footprint.

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