In the run up to World Food Day (WFD), Feedback's office has been abuzz. Everyone's been working tirelessly to showcase the tasty solutions to food waste. From Milan to Warsaw, Calais to Kenya Feedback is helping to expose the vast global food waste scandal and demonstrate what can be done about it.

World Food Day 2015 marks the launch of the Urban Food Policy Pact; an international pact with over 100 cities, including London, committed to creating more sustainble and equitable food systems. The pact also calls for coordination on international food polices and the need for leadership in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal to halve food waste by 2030. The Urban Food Policy Pact will be delivered by Milan's Mayor Giuliano Pisapia to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, at Expo 2015 Milan today.

There is lot more exciting news, so read on to find out what Feedback's been working on for WFD!

Why not celebrate World Food Day by joining the movement against food waste today. We are always looking for volunteers to help make our work possible.

Tomorrow, Feeding the 5000 will take Europe by storm. With events planned in both Milan and Warsaw 10,000 meals will be prepared and served from food that otherwise would go to waste at our events, with an additional 4 tonnes of food saved and going to feed people in need. Feeding the 5000 events aim to highlight the win-win solutions to food waste in a fun and lively atmosphere. Saturday is lining up to be a truly festive day!

Feeding the 5000 Milano Feeding the 5000 will be at the Piazza Castello from 12-4 pm on Saturday serving up 5000 delicious, free meals prepared from fresh quality food that would otherwise have been wasted. The cook will be two Michelin-star Chef Marco Sacco.

We've been working together with a number of partners. You can check out their amazing work at the following sites: FUSIONS, Slow Food, CIHEAM, Milano Ristorazione, Nevitica '14, Equo Evento, YPARD, ActionAid, Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, FSE - Food Surplus Entrepreneurs Network, and Risteco

Feeding the 5000 Warsaw The food waste revolution returns to Warsaw tomorrow. From 12-5 in the very heart of the city on Plac Defilad, Feeding the 5000 will be cooking and serving 5000 tasty meals to help spark more action against food waste. The President of Warsaw will sign the Urban Food Policy Pact at the event and the day will also mark the launch of the Food Surplus Entrepreneurs Network Warsaw. Feedback's FSE Network has been working at full-steam across Europe to create a world without food waste.

We've also teamed up with a number of partners for this event. Have a look at their fantastic work by clicking on their links: FUSIONS, SGGW/Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Fundacja Swiat na Tak, Slow Food Youth Warszawa, MakeSense, Bielańscy Aktywiści, and FSE- Food Surplus Entrepreneurs Network.

Feedback founder Tristram Stuart together with AJ+  created a fantastic short animated film exploring the dark, complex world of food waste. World Food Day presents a time to reflect upon the deprivation many face in a sea of plenty. Internationally over eight million people endure hunger, yet the world wastes at least one-third of all the food it produces. While popular notions may call for the doubling of food production to feed an increasing population, Feedback's various campaigns prove that solutions to hunger are already in action.

On Sunday 27th September, Feedback’s amazing intern, James and 20 volunteers made the trip to Jimbo Hayes' wonderful farm in Norfolk with spuds on the mind - fields of them! On a glorious day, they managed to save one tonne of potatoes from going to waste, which would have been ploughed back into the earth.

Local charity The Ferry Project collected 550kgs, North London Action for the Homeless and Giuseppe Conlon House, a house of hospitality for destitute refugees and asylum seekers in London, also benefited. The meals people receive from these charities have lifesaving potential, served in a safe environment where guests have much-needed access to advisory services and skills to help them live independently. There are truly inspirational people keeping these services going and Feedback is delighted to be able to help them up and down the country. Both the North London Action for the Homeless and Giuseepe Conlon House are always looking for new volunteers. If interested, please contact them directly.

UK Gleaning’s gone global!

Feedback is very happy to announce our good friend Para picked up the remaining 300kgs of potatoes, and they have made their way to the refugee camp in Calais.

Para regularly cooks meals for the needy through his organisation Food for All and at Feeding the 5000 events. He has set up a temporary soup kitchen from his van to feed those in need. At a time when there are people cold and hungry just across the English Channel, it was great to be able to work with him once again.

Finally, thanks so much to our farming friend Jimbo, and all the volunteers who made this possible - you have helped make a huge difference to people's lives!

Feeding the 5000 Athens is a success! Nothing could stop the good cheer at last Sunday's event- not even overcast skies and torrential rain. More than 4,000 portions of delicious traditional briam, a vegetable stew, and 1,500 portions of fruit salad were served. Two tonnes of fresh fruit and veg were rescued and 150 volunteer-food waste warriors worked tirelessly to make the event happen. Thousands of people came to the square and millions witnessed the event through social and conventional media.  What a feast!

Of course, this was all possible from the fantastic work of our partners at: Chef's Club Thessaloniki, Μπορούμε WWF - Καλύτερη Ζωή, British Council Greece - Athens, Δήμος Αθηναίων, FUSIONS, συνΑθηνά and Back to Commons. Thank you!

You can read more news coverage from the event on International Business Times and Digital Journal.

 

As a member of the new "Resource Efficient Food and dRink for the Entire Supply cHain" (REFRESH) project, Feedback will be taking action against food waste along with 26 partners from 12 European countries and China. The project's goal is to contribute towards the objectives of reducing food waste across Europe by 30% by 2025, reducing waste management costs, and maximizing the value from un-avoidable food waste and packaging materials. Our aim is to work with our REFRESH partners to ensure many more European pigs will benefit from The Pig Idea experience. In doing so, we make sure the pigs will eat by-products from food manufacturing and food that might otherwise go to waste, instead of soya beans from the rainforest.

Follow along on Facebook and Twitter for more news from this exciting new initiative!

The Stop Dumping Campaign is busy engaging with movers and shakers about the various ways to reduce food waste from the top down. Check out Edd Colbert's guest post for FoodTank: The Food Think Tank, entitled Rejected: Almost Half of Food Grown in Kenya for Europe is Wasted. The Sustainable Food Trust also recently featured research from Feedback's report into supermarket's unfair practices of dumping food waste onto farmers. Read more here.

Feeding the 5000 Brighton -  Calling all volunteers! Let's create public action against food waste at both the local and national level. On Thursday 29 October, in true Brightonian style, our hotly anticipated surplus celebration will be a feast for the eyes, ears and belly.

Food Waste Collab Bern Building on the foundations laid at the Food Waste Collab in Paris in May, the Food Surplus Entrepreneurs Network and the Swiss association foodwaste invite you to join them for the next Food Waste Collab in Bern on 11 November 2015.

Thanks for being a part of the movement against food waste!

Niki and the Feedback team.