The Event

In the days and weeks before 16th December Feeding the 5000 will receive tonnes of generously donated fresh produce from farms, packers and markets – from the tonnes of produce that are ‘outgraded’ for being cosmetically imperfect and which would have been wasted though they are still good to eat.

The produce will be delivered to the food depot of our main partner, FareShare. From there it will be taken to the commercial kitchens which have been kindly given over to us for the event. Here it will be prepared into soup and other food for the day by an army of volunteers trained in food handling and preparation.

The food will be delivered by FareShare to Trafalgar Square on the 16th December and prepared in time for the free lunch, starting at 12 noon. Meanwhile, smoothies from fresh surplus fruit will be made by a team of bicycle-powered smoothie makers and handed out to passers-by.

Leading chefs, including Thomasina Miers, will perform live cooking demonstrations and there will be speakers from the food and farming industries as well as civic and spiritual leaders, including the Bishop of London.

Fareshare, the largest food redistribution charity in the UK, will handle the food on the day, and the event will aim to highlight their work in collecting surplus food from supermarkets and manufacturers and delivering it to homeless shelters and other community centres for society’s vulnerable. This is Rubbish is dedicated to raising awareness of how individuals, as well as retailers, can reduce the amount of food waste they produce. Save the Children point out that if we stopped wasting so much money on food that we throw away, we would liberate resources that could be used to help save millions of children from starvation. ActionAid points out that food waste is not just a problem in rich countries: even in hungry parts of the world farmers can lose up to a half of their crops because they lack the basic agricultural infrastructure to get it to market before it spoils, and rich countries can help them to invest in equipment to prevent this. See our Partners page for more information.