After lunch each day, 12th grader Lưu Tiến Minh Nghĩa and his schoolmates at True North International School in Hà Nội carry sorted food waste to a small garden behind their campus.
There, black soldier fly larvae break down the waste and produce natural fertiliser for new crops.
Instead of throwing away kitchen remnants, students save the roots of spring onions, water spinach and other vegetables to replant in the school garden.
Vegetables grown on-site are later returned to the kitchen for daily meals, creating a closed-loop system that reinforces sustainable living.
At True North International School, separating recyclable and non-recyclable waste has become part of the daily routine for every student.
Leftovers are collected, sorted into designated bins for organic waste and paper, and then transported to the central composting area.
Nghĩa, who leads the ZeroWaste Project, has a strong interest in food science and hopes to pursue a career in the field.
Motivated by the belief that food should not be wasted, he launched the project independently to demonstrate that anyone can grow food even in small spaces, before expanding it to involve the wider community.
“We don’t have to harvest the entire vegetables. The vegetables will be available throughout the year, and we just need to put in compost to make sure that the vegetables receive enough nutrients,” Nghĩa told Việt Nam News.
“I want to do something that is from farm to table, but also from table to farm. It’s like a cycle.”
He said the project was partly inspired by what he witnessed in the mountainous town of Sa Pa, where many children struggle to access food.
“They sit on the pavement asking for food while we have more than enough. I want food to be accessible across the country,” he said.
Nghĩa is now considering adding a rooftop aquaponics system to expand the initiative, using black soldier flies as fish feed. The model would allow organic waste to be processed efficiently without flies circulating the campus.
Beyond growing vegetables, the ZeroWaste Project aims to strengthen environmental awareness across the school community.
By tracking food waste, the school encourages students to minimise leftovers and take part in food-drive activities, collecting unused, non-perishable items to donate to food banks such as VietHarvest in Việt Nam.
Not many students in Việt Nam are passionate about gardening or agriculture.
Nghĩa said. “Even though Việt Nam is an agricultural country, we need more young people and leaders to help it continue to grow.”
According to Edward Jiyong Oh, the school’s vice principal, students from kindergarten to grade 12 are able to take part in learning about the garden.
Ninth-grader Lê Trí Nguyên, a project volunteer, said he had never gardened before joining.
“I didn’t know how to water plants or how composting works. After joining the zero-waste project, I realised how much food we throw away and how many people struggle because of it,” he said.
“I learned how important zero food waste and agriculture are to our society.”
Start small, grow well
Although the project is student-run, it shows how small actions can create meaningful community impact.
Between 2023 and 2025, the efforts of nearly 350 students, teachers and staff helped reduce a total of 1,079kg of waste.
The initiative has been selected as one of 33 finalists from 7,761 applicants across 173 countries for the Zayed Sustainability Prize, representing True North International School in the Global High School Category for East Asia and the Pacific.
Nghĩa is preparing to travel to Abu Dhabi in January for the award ceremony and Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, where he hopes to connect with sustainability leaders and explore new ways to expand the project.
Teacher Edward said Nghĩa’s initiative has grown significantly, from changing small daily habits and how the school community eats to becoming a potential international prize-winning project that could expand into hydroponics, aquaponics and practices reaching beyond the campus to Hà Nội and the wider country.
He hopes that one day, when Nghĩa returns to Sa Pa, children there will no longer have to sit on the streets without enough to eat, showing how small changes can lead to major impacts.
Khánh Dương (VNS)
