Sodexo Helps Feed 5,000 In The Battle To Tackle Food Waste

The 'Feeding the 5,000' event, held at Trafalgar Square on 18 November, was organised by food waste campaigner and author, Tristram Stuart, and highlighted the work of partner organisations, FareShare, FoodCycle, Love Food Hate Waste and Friends of the Earth.

The aim of the day was to help raise awareness of the amount of fit for human consumption food that is wasted in the UK every day, sometimes for purely aesthetic reasons, and what can be done to tackle the issue.

Via its strategic partnership with FareShare, the national food poverty and food redistribution charity, Sodexo supported the day by contributing a team of 20 volunteers for the field kitchen and outdoor cooking equipment.

The Sodexo employee volunteers were on hand to help serve lunch to over 5,000 people in the square on the day. All the food served was made from fresh and nutritious ingredients that would otherwise have been wasted.

The menu included a vegetable curry made from vegetables cast out because they were not cosmetically perfect, with rice. A live cooking tent showed the public how to cook and eat usually discarded animal parts such as hearts, lungs and offal. There were also 1,600 pints of apple juice ready to be drunk and celebrity chefs turning waste into well-seasoned goodies.

Other supporters of the event included the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson; the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres; journalist and campaigner Rosie Boycott; and celebrity chefs Thomasina Miers, Arthur Potts Dawson, Valentine Warner and Thomas Hunt.

Thomas Jelley, corporate citizenship manager, Sodexo, said: “Feeding the 5,000 was a fantastic event that made a strong point about an issue that needs urgent attention from social, environmental and economic perspectives.

Participation was important to Sodexo because, as part of the 'Better Tomorrow Plan', our sustainability strategy to 2020, we are committed to reducing and recovering food waste. The event also ties in with our STOP Hunger campaign which aims to tackle hunger and poor nutrition in local communities. We care enormously about our relationship with FareShare and are pleased to have been able to help feed so many while raising awareness of the scandal that is food waste.”

Sodexo employee and volunteer Sean Page said: “I had a really good time volunteering at the event. It was a very worthwhile and thought-provoking exercise. It was great to be involved.”