More than 200 runners joined the Save Food Fun Run, alongside the 2014Bangkok Marathon, to raise awareness about the need to prevent food loss and food waste, organizers of the Save Food Campaign announced today.

The Save Food Fun Run kicked off just after dawn next to Bangkok’s Grand Palace amid cheering crowds of well-wishers who lined the route of the Bangkok Marathon.Organized by the Save Food Asia-Pacific Campaign with support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the ‘fun run’ runners came from FAO,UN ESCAP, Asia Development Bank (ADB), Thailand’s Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, UN-OCHA,APRACA, Kasetsart University, Russian Embassy andUNESCO among others.

Sporting blue T-shirts, caps and banners, and calling for one and all to ‘save food,’ the group made its way around Bangkok’s Sanam Luang, joining in with runners from the Bangkok Marathon who were approaching the finish line.

“This was a good day and a good way to get the message out that, to be healthy, we must exercise but we must also eat nutritious food – and most importantly we must not waste food,” said Hiroyuki Konuma, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Asia and the Pacific.

After crossing the finish line, the Save Food Fun Run team posed for a group photo and a chant: “We’re here for the Save Food Fun Run – we promise we won't waste food. We’re healthy, we eat nutritious food – so don’t waste it!”

Food loss and food waste are serious issues, with enormous amounts of edible food thrown away or neglected.

“Every year, 1.3 billion tons of food – equivalent to 30 percent of annual food production – are lost or wasted globally and up to 50 percent of fresh fruits and vegetables are lost or wasted from farm to plate,” said Konuma who helped lead the fun run. “Nearly 15-20 percent of food is wasted after being served on the dining tables of industrialized Asia,” he added, stressing the seriousness of the issues and the paradox of having more than 800 million hungry people in the world – two thirds of them in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Save Food Asia-Pacific Campaign has vowed to raise awareness of these issues and, working with networks of public and private partnerships, alongside academic institutions, retailers and others, to ultimately reduce food waste.

In September of this year, the Save Food Network Thailand (SFNET) held its first meeting with FAO and Thailand’s Office of Agricultural Economics, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives as co-chairs. Other countries in the region have expressed interest in forming their own save food networks.