W5: "The Secret Door in My School Leads to..."

It started as an ordinary Tuesday. The bell rang, signaling the end of my history class, and I decided to take a shortcut through the old wing of the school to get to lunch faster. Hardly anyone ever went there anymore—the dim hallways, cracked tiles, and flickering lights made it feel abandoned. But as I walked past a row of ancient lockers, I felt something odd. A soft breeze brushed against my arm.

That didn’t make sense. There were no windows nearby.

Curious, I retraced my steps and noticed a thin sliver of light between two lockers. I pressed against them, and to my shock, they moved. A hidden door creaked open, revealing a dark passageway. My heart pounded. Why had no one seen this before? Had it been here all along?

Out of curiosity, I stepped inside.

The moment I crossed the threshold, everything changed. The dusty school walls vanished, replaced by a vibrant, bustling city made entirely of food. Towering candy skyscrapers shimmered under a caramel-colored sky, rivers of bubbling soda flowed through the streets, and bridges made of pretzels connected different districts. The scent of freshly baked bread filled the air.

I barely had time to process what I was seeing before a large, round tomato wearing a tiny crown rolled up to me. “Oh, thank goodness!” he exclaimed. “A human has arrived!”

I blinked. “You can talk?”

“Of course! I’m King Tomato III,” he said, puffing up proudly. “And we have a serious problem.”

King Tomato III led me through the streets of Food Kingdom, where I saw all kinds of food creatures—walking vegetables, chattering pastries, and even a wise old loaf of bread with a long, flour-dusted beard. But instead of the cheerful marketplace I expected, there was a gloomy atmosphere. Baskets of bruised fruit sat untouched, piles of stale bread loomed in the corners, and many food citizens looked worried.

“Our world is crumbling,” King Tomato explained, his voice heavy with concern. “Humans waste too much food. Every time something is thrown away uneaten, part of our kingdom disappears. If this continues, we will cease to exist.”

I swallowed hard. I had never thought about what happened to the food I didn’t finish. “How can I help?”

King Tomato and his advisors—a nervous, half-melted ice cream cone named Mr. Swirl and a feisty little chili pepper called Pepperella—told me the only way to stop the destruction was to find the Lost Recipe Scroll. It contained the knowledge to restore value to food and teach humans how to waste less. But it had been stolen by the dreaded Mold King, who ruled over the Land of Forgotten Leftovers.

Determined, I set off with Pepperella and Mr. Swirl. We crossed the Sticky Syrup Swamp, dodged rolling meatballs in the Pasta Plains, and climbed the towering Cheese Mountain. Finally, we reached the Land of Forgotten Leftovers—a gloomy, abandoned place where moldy bread and spoiled milk whispered in eerie voices.

Inside the Mold King’s lair, we found him—a grumpy, green, fuzzy creature sitting on a throne made of rotten fruit. “Why should I return the scroll?” he sneered. “Humans will keep wasting food no matter what!”

“But not if they understand how important food is!” I argued. “If we spread the knowledge in the scroll, people will change their ways!”

The Mold King hesitated. “And if they don’t?”

“Then I’ll do my best to teach them,” I promised.

With a reluctant sigh, he handed over the scroll. “Very well. But if humans don’t learn, I’ll be back.”

Back in Food Kingdom, King Tomato III unrolled the Lost Recipe Scroll, and golden light washed over the land. The bruised fruit regained its freshness, the stale bread became soft and warm again, and the kingdom was saved—for now.

“It’s up to you now,” King Tomato said. “Tell the humans what you’ve learned.”

Before I could respond, the air shimmered around me, and suddenly, I was back in the dusty hallway of my school. The secret door was gone.

Had it all been real? My hands still smelled faintly of cinnamon, and in my pocket, I found a tiny sugar cookie shaped like a crown.

I decided to keep the secret. But from that day on, I made sure to waste less food—and to tell others why it mattered. Because food waste has serious implications for the environment, global and national economies, food security, and nutrition. The growing and persistent global demand for food is also rendering fertile land useless while contributing to further land degradation and deforestation, destroying our valuable natural habitats and biodiversity, limiting the services they provide and disrupting entire ecosystems (Lai, 2021).


Reference

Lai, O. (2021, November 22). What is food waste? Earth.org. https://earth.org/what-is-food-waste/

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