Feeding the 5000
Type of practice Reduce
Name of practice Feeding the 5000
Name of main actor Feeding the 5000 partners, UK
Type of actor(s) NGO
Location United Kingdom
Stage of implementation End-of-life
Year of implementation 2009
What was/is being done? Feeding the 5000 is the flagship event of a global food waste campaign founded by Tristram Stuart, prizewinning author of Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal (Penguin/Norton, 2009). The first Feeding the 5000 event was organised in Trafalgar Square in December 2009 where 5000 people were provided with free hot curries, tonnes of fresh groceries and thousands of smoothies – all made from food that otherwise would have been wasted, such as cosmetically imperfect fruit and vegetables that fail to meet the strict cosmetic standards of supermarkets. In Paris and London, in addition to 5000 people, the event included a pig-pen where pigs were fed on apple pulp and leftover vegetables to demonstrate that even when food is not fit for human consumption, the next best thing is to feed it to livestock. Feeding the 5000 has developed a food waste pyramid online resource to help businesses find the best use of food waste they generate. Feeding the 5000 has launched similar events and campaigns around the UK and overseas, including in Dublin, Paris and Bristol. The aim of the event is to bring together a partnership of organisations providing local solutions to the global problem of food waste, and to engage the public, businesses and governments in these positive solutions. Feeding the 5000 is now spreading across Europe and internationally, and are partners in the EC-funded FUSIONS project, a four-year programme to tackle food waste across the EU. Event partners have included FareShare, FoodCycle, Love Food Hate Waste, Friends of the Earth, Voice Ireland, BIA FoodBank, This is Rubbish, the Mayor of London, Save the Children and ActionAid among others.
Outcomes and impacts More than 5000 meals are served, tonnes of fresh surplus fruit and vegetables are saved, sending a message that food waste is a problem that can and must be solved. The events have been an amazing success in raising awareness of the positive solutions to the food waste scandal and receive a huge amount of media coverage. The legacy of the events have included long-term arrangements with businesses to divert food surpluses to local food redistribution charities; the campaign to relax cosmetic standards on fruit and vegetables has contributed to the fact that the fastest growing sector in the UK fresh produce market has been the sale of ‘ugly’ fruit and vegetables; large food businesses have started diverting more food to livestock; politicians and policy-makers in the UK, EU and further afield have consulted with the Feeding the 5000 team on food waste reduction strategies.
