Feeding the 5,000, round 2

(Image: jbloom)

We all know wasting food's pretty awful especially when you know that 25% of all UK household food goes to waste when so many others in the world go hungry. Thanks to ludicrous EU and UK laws and supermarkets being silly about what they think people will and won't buy, up to half of food produced in the UK is wasted between production and plate. While not only being hugely wasteful, this also contributes massively to carbon emissions.

But while it's easy for the average conscientious consumer to make sure they eat everything they buy, what can they do about the huge amounts of food wasted through no fault of their own?

Well how about joining in on eating some free curry? Sounds too good to be true doesn't it, but Tristram Stuart, author of Waste, a book that exposes the huge amounts of food going to waste all over the world, has again teamed up with a whole bunch of food waste charities in order to repeat his 2009 event, Feeding the 5,000.

By collecting up food that would otherwise have gone to waste and using it to make a massive yummy curry and whole a load of delicious smoothies, 5,000 people walked away from Trafalgar Square with full bellies. As well as that three tonnes of perfectly fine fresh groceries were given away and 1,000 signatures were collected in an attempt to persuade supermarkets to publish the amounts of food they waste and annual targets of waste reduction.

At this year's event, on the 18th November in Trafalgar Square, there'll be more curry along with cooking demonstrations and other activities involving using food instead of just throwing it away. By showing how easy it is to feed so many people on just a fraction of the food regularly disposed of this will draw attention to the issue,  encouraging consumers to waste less food on a local level and for supermarkets and the government to do more to address the excess of food grown and bought into the UK.

For more information on the event and Tristram Stuart's work check out the Feeding the 5,000 website and for tips on how to make your own All Consuming Curry see here.

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