Jennifer Zamparelli chats to the CEO of Airfield Estate, Claire MacEvilly, about their mission to make Dublin a sustainable food city. Listen back above.
As well as being a beautiful place to visit, Airfield Estate is Dublin's only working farm and gardens. It's a social and charitable hub that was left in trust to the people of Ireland in 1974 by Letitia and Naomi Overend, two trailblazing sisters who understood the importance of being self-sufficient.
Today, the estate is under the helm of CEO Claire MacEvilly who says the 38 acres welcome over 300,000 visitors every year.
As well as getting ready to welcome Santa this Christmas, Claire says the team is focused on setting up a youth board to help their food hub become even more eco-friendly.
"We want to give young people a platform to help us in Airfield, but also for them to come together to engage on these really big issues," she explains.
Referencing a recent study from the ESRI that surveyed 16 to 24-year-olds on climate action for the very first time, MacEvilly pointed out that many young people want to see domestic flights banned in Ireland and want to see stronger carbon practices put in place.
Using Jamie Oliver's Bite Back campaign in the UK as an example, she told Jen that the youth board would hopefully campaign for better and more sustainable practices to be implemented in Ireland when it comes to food waste.
"We did a lovely piece of research a couple of years ago asking 850 people about their food waste habits, and really it's quite simple; it's fruit, veg, and bread. They're the biggest, they're the things you most likely throw out."
To tackle this waste problem, MacEvilly's team developed an app that eventually saw a 23% reduction in users' food waste.
"We have this dream that the group that will work with us will go on to be Ireland's Greta Thunbergs," she explains. "We want to give them an opportunity to learn more, develop leadership, bring in speakers and that kind of thing."
Listen back to the interview above and click here for more information about the youth board.
