Feeding the 5000 comes to Bristol

26 March 2012

The Soil Association is proud to be supporting the Bristol debut of the hugely successful ‘Feeding the 5000’ event which was held for the first time in Trafalger Square, London, in 2009. Founded by Tristram Stuart, food waste activist and author, the event provides members of the public with a free lunch using only ingredients that otherwise would have been wasted. Replica events have been held internationally but Bristol is the first city in the UK to host this event outside of London.

The event is being held in partnership with FareShare South West and supported by a host of local businesses and charities including the Soil Association and Bristol City Council. Celebrity chefs - including Tom Herbert from the Fabulous Baker Brothers, Tom Hunt, Chris Wicks and chefs from the Thali Café – will be present alongside speakers, including Tristram Stuart author of Waste, and live music.

Date:           Saturday 12 May 2012
Time:          1pm to 5pm
Location:     College Green, Bristol

Jacqui Reeves, Project Director at FareShare South West, comments, "Bristol is the first city to host this event outside of London – it’s got ‘Bristol mentality’ written all over it. A free fun day, a free lunch plus we get to show the food industry how the 4 million tonnes of food they throw away can easily go to people who really need it."

Save the date and vote with your forks!  Join us for lunch and help get the country demanding an end to food waste.

A selection of food waste facts taken from Tristram Stuart's book ‘Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal’ (Penguin, 2009):

• There are nearly one billion malnourished people in the world, but the approximately 40 million tonnes of food wasted by US households, retailers and food services each year would be enough to satisfy the hunger of every one of them.
• The irrigation water used globally to grow food that is wasted would be enough for the domestic needs (at 200 litres per person per day) of 9 billion people - the number expected on the planet by 2050.
• The UK, US and Europe have nearly twice as much food as is required by the nutritional needs of their populations. Up to half the entire food supply is wasted between the farm and the fork. If crops wastefully fed to livestock are included, European countries have more than three times more food than they need, while the US has around four times more food than is needed, and up to three-quarters of the nutritional value is lost before it reaches people's mouths.
• An estimated 20 million tonnes of food wasted in Britain from the plough to the plate.
• UK Households waste 25% of all the food they buy.
• 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.
• A third of the world's entire food supply could be saved by reducing waste – or enough to feed 3 billion people; and this would still leave enough surplus for countries to provide their populations with 130 per cent of their nutritional requirements.
• An estimated 20 to 40% of UK fruit and vegetables rejected even before they reach the shops – mostly because they do not match the supermarkets' excessively strict cosmetic standards.
• 24 to 35% of school lunches end up in the bin.