Photo / Orhan Tsolak
The feast is the brainchild of Tristram Stuart, a historian and freegan who has long campaigned against the exorbitant amount of waste that the food industry produces. No lofty preacher, Stuart has himself lived for years on the food chucked out by supermarkets, and in researching his book Waste: Uncovering The Global Food Scandal discovered that large amounts of fruit and veg are discarded, falling foul of "supermarkets’ cosmetic standards, EU legislation, or the retailers’ unfair supply contracts".
Add that to the £480 worth of food that, according to Save the Children, the average British family throws out each year, and you've got a serious amount of waste being sent to landfill. Today's event should help to get the scale of the problem, as well as providing a tasty luncheon. Thought for food, indeed.
The feast will be enjoyed from 12pm till 2pm today, Wednesday 16th December.