Five Thousand To Be Fed In Trafalgar Square

Dean Nicholas
By Dean Nicholas Last edited 171 months ago
Five Thousand To Be Fed In Trafalgar Square

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Photo / Orhan Tsolak
In an al-fresco feast of Biblical proportions, up to five thousand people will be fed in Trafalgar Square at lunchtime today. Six tonnes of misshapen fruit and veg, the kind of produce that would give Esther Rantzen the willies, will be fashioned into soups, curries and smoothies and doled out to hungry lunchers.

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.

Last Updated 16 December 2009