Today, a coalition of cool people will feed a multitude of Londoners a free lunch in Trafalgar Square. Feeding the 5,000 is an event organized by Tristram Stuart in conjunction with a bunch of partners–FareShare, ActionAid, Save the Children and This is Rubbish.
The noon-time event won’t require any miracles, as in a past feeding of 5,000. That’s because any developed nation can easily feed thousands with the daily excess of its food system. And that’s what will happen in Trafalgar Square:
All the food handed out on the day to passers-by will be made from fresh and nutritious ingredients that otherwise would have been wasted. The menu will include hot soups made from vegetables cast out because they are not cosmetically perfect, a range of sandwiches and freshly-made fruit smoothies, pressed on the day by customised bicycles.
The event is sure to draw an intense media gaze, and with it further attention to the superficiality-driven surplus in the food chain. I’ll try to update this post as media reports and/or photos filter back about the event.
I’d love to still be in England to experience “Feeding” firsthand. Since I’m not, I’ll be following from afar.
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Update: This video from The Guardian shows how the event looked, including the bonus fruit and vegetable giveaway because there was so much excess. Makes you wonder…
Here’s the print article, too, which captured this lovely bit of color:
“Wonky apples, step this way!” a volunteer bellowed.