Free Food in Trafalgar Square Feast

Fancy free food?

If random people handed out food in central London, chances are they would be ignored like the plague. However, food waste campaigners have rallied together to give free food to 5000 strangers in order to to get their voices heard.

Free lunch will be offered to passers-by in Trafalgar Square on December 16 as part of the Feeding the 5000 campaign to prepare for the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. The campaign hopes to raise awareness about food waste in wealthy nations. According to This is Rubbish, families in the UK alone waste 25 percent of the food they buy.

Volunteers will offer a range of food including hot soup, smoothies and sandwiches made from salvaged produce that would be otherwise wasted.

Organised by the author and notable ‘freegan’ Tristram Stuart, the event pools together several organisations including Save the Children, ActionAid, This is Rubbish and FareShare, and is supported by the Mayor of London and the Bishop of London.

Josie Cohen, the Campaigns Officer for ActionAid, explains that her organisation’s involvement with the project goes in line with their HungerFREE campaign, which works with the developing world to secure their food rights. “Food waste in the Western world contributes to global hunger,” she explains. “In fact, 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.”

FareShare, a charity organisation that fights food poverty and food waste, will provide the logistical support, storage of ingredients and transport of food for the event. Any surplus food left after the event will be used to supply the local communities that FareShare helps. “This event gives us an opportunity to promote our message that ‘No good food should be wasted’,” said a spokesperson for the organisation.

Feeding the 5000, whose biblical connotations take on a new meaning during the Christmas season, will run from noon to 2pm on December 16.