\nThe world often seems larger than life, especially through a child\u2019s eyes, but the world is actually getting a lot smaller as a result of the lives that live off of it. By showing the kids that the earth\u2019s resources are finite, not infinite, made them more aware of the limits our planet has and that we shouldn\u2019t be taking it for granted. Explaining how much work went into getting them their groceries from the growing to the picking to shipping the food all around the world and finally having it end up in stores and restaurants made them more grateful for everything it took to get their food to them. Teaching them about how much of the world\u2019s resources, especially food, gets wasted showed them how much impact people had on the planet, and not in a good way. Even so, they didn\u2019t lose hope.
\nThis topic can be overwhelming at points and it can seem like there are too many problems and there aren\u2019t any solutions to solve them, but children aren\u2019t brought down with that despair, they only know optimism. Even though some of the information I told them was shocking, like the fact that the United States loses 165 billion dollars every year as a result of food waste, but even when they heard big numbers like that they weren\u2019t swayed. Though they did seem genuinely concerned to learn about the downsides of a topic they had previously known nothing about, they did not let this new knowledge dampen their spirits. If anything, they seemed more inspired to make a change. Even though the task of lowering food waste can seem daunting, the kids didn\u2019t seem to be worried. They were eager for me to give them options to help them lower their amount of food waste and even offered some ideas of their own. Simple things like planning out meals so you don\u2019t buy more food than you need can make a big difference because you won\u2019t be letting edible food rot and you won\u2019t lose any money on wasted food. One of the kids even told me that she was going to give her dog the food she couldn\u2019t finish, so she\u2019s both thinking sustainably and also making her dog very, very happy. After playing the game with the kids, I walked away knowing that I was leaving the future of the planet in highly capable hands.
\nWhich would you rather have?
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