Pioneering 'Feeding the 5,000' project to highlight food waste
A FREE lunch was created from food saved from being thrown away when “Feeding the 5,000” was held for the first time in Bristol.
The event on College Green was organised to highlight the high level of food that ends up in landfill sites, which could go to families who desperately need it.
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Crowds of people enjoy the FareShare Feeding the 5000 event
Run by FareShare South West, it had the backing of a number of organisations and businesses, including the Bristol-based Soil Association and the city council.
Celebrity chefs and bakers, including Tom Herbert from the Fabulous Baker Brothers TV series, Chris Wicks and Tom Hunt were also involved in the day.
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Jacqui Reeves, project director at FareShare South West, said the aim was to show how much waste was produced by the food industry, which throws away millions of tonnes of produce, some only rejected because of minor imperfections.
About a tonne of vegetables and nearly as much fruit was donated to go into the curry lunches, with some 40 volunteers involved in preparing the meals.
Around 500kg of fruit was provided for juicing and a stall selling “wonky” vegetables was also set up.
Visitors to the event were asked to sign a pledge promising to cut their own level of food waste and calling on businesses to do the same.
Tristram Stuart, food waste campaigner and founder of the Feeding the 5,000 movement said: “Today was all about celebrating the positive solutions to food waste which is quite simply to eat and enjoy food rather than throw it away.”
Visit www.feeding5k.org
Comments
by Bedmootoo
Monday, May 14 2012, 4:53PM
“@Cider dog - There's literally no reason to gripe about this. Surprised you've created one. I just turned up like the other 4999 people and had some grub mate. Reminded me I chuck out a lot of half decent veg. Job done. Its aim wasn't to feed people, the organisers wanted to show just how much food goes to waste, which they did. Simples. Pretty sure homeless people are feed in very similar ways but thats generally through hostels. Whatever mate you're just thinking up reasons to moan.”
by Cider_Dog
Monday, May 14 2012, 4:05PM
“@ bedmootoo, OK fair enough, but I would still suggest that it would make more sense to give the food out on the streets to those in need as opposed to some freeloaders on College Green.
As for the 'original feeding of the 5000' I don't think even you could pull that particular miracle off, or maybe you think you could?”
by Ben_321
Monday, May 14 2012, 2:51PM
“This was a fantastic event. Great work to everyone involved”
by Bedmootoo
Monday, May 14 2012, 2:29PM
“@Cyder dog - what? Yes it was free, as was the original feeding of the 5000, ergo the name. No restaurant was affiliated to this as I could see. Just trying to highlight how much we throw away. Which it did quite effectively. Cynics one word for it.”
by Cider_Dog
Monday, May 14 2012, 2:16PM
“Was the food given away free?
If not, why not just give the left-overs / waste directly to those who need it?
Oh, I forgot, then the restaurant would be deprived of making a percentage and getting some free publicity.
Yes, i am a cynic ;)”
by TheIsonomian
Monday, May 14 2012, 12:38PM
“I was at Feeding 5k on Saturday, and thre was a great atmosphere as well as a very tasty curry. The sunshine really helped to lend the whole event a bit of a festival feel. As well as getting fed, thousands of Bristolians signed up to a pledge to cut down their food waste, and asked businesses to do the same, which I hope helped get the message across.
If you want to find out more about the problem of food waste and what can be done to reduce it, there's a really interesting blog piece by Feeding 5k's founder Tristram Stuart that gives some of the details: http://tinyurl.com/csupjfl”