'LOVE food, hate waste' — that was the message given to pupils from schools in the Okehampton area recently served up by flamboyant celebrity chef Gordon Le Rotter.
Gordon and his side-kick puppet Pierre put on a 45-minute theatre show to a few schools, themed on food waste reduction and composting.
One of the schools Gordon visited was Okehampton Primary School, which followed on from the school's recent waste audit where every last gram of its waste was separated and weighed.
Gordon and Pierre talked to the children about how much food we as a nation waste and what changes people could make to lesson the amount of food waste put into landfill.
Gordon said that it is estimated up to a third of our food is wasted. He also explained to the children how easy it is to compost any food waste that would otherwise be thrown away.
This was a subject many of the children at Okehampton Primary School warmed to as they have been composting their fruit waste from the KS1 class for a year and a half.
Further enhancements to the school's composting facilities is the arrival of a new 'state of the art' cylindrical, two metre, composter.
It is anticipated that with the arrival of the new composter the school will shortly be in a position to compost all of its food waste — thus helping to reduce the amount of rubbish deposited in landfill.
West Devon's recycling education officer Terri Easton, who assisted Gordon at the Okehampton events, said it was great to see how enthusiatic the children were and the amount of knowledge they already have about recycling.
Terri said: 'It was good to see that some of the schools have already put some of these recycling actions into practice.'