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Join us to Eat and Pledge to Protest Against Food Waste

Greta Jonyniate | 07.11.11

On the 18th of November in Trafalgar Square the Feeding the 5000 team, in partnership with the Mayor of London, Fareshare, FoodCycle, Love Food Hate Waste and Friends of the Earth, will treat 5000 members of the public to a free hot lunch made entirely out of fresh but cosmetically imperfect fruit and vegetables that would otherwise have been wasted.

From 12-2pm, a partnership of campaigners, charities, volunteers and prominent supporters will serve lunch to 5000 members of the public to highlight the problem of food waste, and the many practical ways to solve it. All the food handed out on the day to passers-by will be made from fresh and nutritious provided by farmers and retailer with fruit and veg that otherwise would have been wasted.

The event will engage the public on the issue of food waste in fun and practical ways that demonstrate how governments, businesses and individuals can help. There will be live cooking demonstrations by leading chefs, public interactive apple pressing and the crowds will have the opportunity to hear about why and how to reduce food waste. The menu will include curry made from vegetables cast out because they are not cosmetically perfect, and a range of freshly-prepared and cooked foods cooked ‘live’ by volunteering well known chefs.

Organised by the author and food waste campaigner Tristram Stuart, Feeding the 5000 will highlight the work of the partner organisations FareShare, FoodCycle, Love Food Hate Waste, Friends of the Earth, Mayor of London, journalist and campaigner Rosie Boycott; and celebrity chef Thomasina Miers.

Tristram Stuart explains: “Feeding the 5000 is a wonderful partnership including food companies, farmers and charities. The aim of our lunchtime feast is to highlight how food waste can be avoided by putting food to good use i.e. feeding people.”

“We want to raise awareness of how individuals, as well as retailers, can reduce the amount of food waste they produce. We believe that food retailers and governments should be encouraged to make combating hunger a priority and ensure that resources saved by reducing food waste are put into feeding hungry people around the world.”

SHOCKING FACTS ON WASTE
 More than a third of the world’s entire food production is currently thrown away, contributing to global warming, resource over-use and rising food prices.
 All the world’s nearly one billion hungry people could be lifted out of malnourishment on less than a quarter of the food that is wasted in the US, UK and Europe.
 Rich countries like the UK currently waste up to half of their food supplies.
 An estimated 20-40% of UK fruit and vegetables are rejected even before they reach the shops as they don't match supermarkets’ strict cosmetic standards.
 Bread and other cereal products thrown away in UK households alone would be enough to lift 30 million of the world’s hungry people out of malnourishment.
 And yet ore than 4 million people in the UK suffer from food poverty.