Food Waste Prevention Week

What started as a passion project for a Florida school teacher has grown exponentially into Food Waste Prevention Week, a movement that amplifies hundreds of local, state, national, and international voices calling for cultural change around the issue of food waste.

THE CHALLENGE

The Food Waste Prevention Week planning team approached Rockit Science with a compelling task: to design a social media campaign that not only educates but also inspires genuine cultural change regarding food waste. This ambitious objective required us to craft a campaign that goes beyond simple awareness-raising and delves into the realm of fostering meaningful shifts in attitudes and behaviors surrounding food waste. By combining the power of education with creative and impactful messaging, we aimed to ignite a collective movement that motivates individuals to take concrete actions in reducing food waste, ultimately leading to a positive and lasting cultural transformation.

THE APPROACH

To maximize our social media strategy, we harnessed the influential power of micro-influencers, specifically leveraging the partnership network of Food Waste Prevention Week. Through partner info sessions, we introduced and educated numerous partners about the mission of the event. We equipped them with a dedicated Partner Toolkit designed to facilitate their participation on social media during the week-long event. To ensure convenience, participants were given the freedom to create their own social media posts or utilize a plug-and-play calendar of posts and captions, which were also available in Spanish. Additionally, we featured partners' food waste-related events and resources on their website, providing a comprehensive platform to showcase their contributions.

Social Media Campaign

Maintaining a consistent approach to marketing is crucial for the success of Food Waste Prevention Week (FWPW). The aim of FWPW is to develop a set of communication tools that can complement existing outreach efforts and be utilized by teams of all sizes and skill levels. By adopting a common theme each year, FWPW can establish a coherent and unified messaging hierarchy that audiences can quickly identify and engage with. Consistency in messaging ensures that the overall effort is not only recognizable but also more effective in achieving its goals.

We understand that supporting all of our partners is essential to the success of Food Waste Prevention Week. That’s why we have developed a comprehensive communications toolkit at the heart of our efforts. The toolkit serves as a foundational framework that can be customized to fit the unique needs and goals of each partner. It includes a range of resources, such as proposed themed days, events, a social media calendar, target audiences, outreach channels, preparing for launch, advance prep overview & checklist, and templates for messaging. These tools are designed to provide our partners with the support they need to effectively engage their audiences and maximize their impact during FWPW.

Trivia & Games

The 2023 theme revolved around pop-culture gameshows and trivia
- organizations could create a more interactive and engaging experience for their audiences, which increased adoption and helped spread the message of food waste reduction to a wider audience. Quizzes were designed to be both fun and educational, testing the audience’s knowledge on food waste reduction while providing helpful tips and tricks along the way.

To enhance the theme and increase engagement, we created additional posts that featured “Did You Know” facts, “Tips” from our sponsors to highlight important issues, informative statistics, featured content, and quiz winners

Raising Awareness

Food Waste Prevention Week (FWPW) takes a unique and multifaceted approach to raising awareness about food waste prevention. Activities occur in the lead-up to the official week and continue throughout the week, with a high frequency of both in-person and virtual activations.

Free webinars are available to everyone, covering topics that range from government organizations to business owners and everyday people who want to learn how to reduce food waste in their spheres of influence.

Schools participate in K-12 art contests, teacher workshops, and have access to in-class food waste curricula and resources, such as videos, presentations, activity books, and materials available in English, Spanish, and French. Content is segmented by age, starting at 5-7 years old and up to 14+.

These events are an excellent way to bring together audiences in new ways and highlight the importance of local action in preventing food waste.

Friends To Lean On

Our campaign for Food Waste Prevention Week 2023 received an unprecedented level of participation and support from a diverse array of sponsors and partner organizations, including national and international entities, universities, governmental agencies, renowned brands, and even professional sports teams.

The Results

19.2 Million-Person Reach

An astounding 342% surge compared to the previous year

10,000+ Online Participation

Online event and contest participation

1,000+ In-Person Participation

More than double compared to the previous year