Do you like curry? If so you’re invited to lunch…

Next Saturday, 24th November a delicious vegetable curry that’s totally organic, containing no processed foods will be cooked and served up – are you interested?

It would be great to see you, it’s free, during the day and easy to get to… am I tempting you yet?

It will be a jolly, friendly and very social affair as another 4,900 guests have been invited too.

That’s a lot of friends for lunch! How can it be possible?

To give you some background, the curry will be made from vegetables that would otherwise have been thrown away because of aesthetics, blemishes, damaged packaged or short expiration dates that would otherwise go to waste.

I wont be trying to fit you into my garden, and to be honest I’m not even organising it, merely letting you know that this exciting food event will be taking place at Wolf Tone Park in Dublin next week from 12 noon until 4.00 pm and is being organised to drive awareness around the problem of waste food in Ireland. There are many positive solutions to the food waste problem that sees 30% of what we buy in the bin and the Feeding 5000 Campaign aims to highlight this.

Supported by four partners: VOICE – Voice of Irish Concern for the Environment, Stop Food Waste, Bia Foodbank and Food Glorious Food and organised by Tristram Stuart (author of Food Waste, Uncovering the Global Food Scandal), this type of event has successfully been run in Paris, Bristol and London and highlights how easy it is to reduce the unimaginable levels of food waste.

So what ingredients will be added to your vegetable curry?

150kg potatoes
300kg rice
120kg cauliflowers
150kg carrots
100kg peas
80kg courgettes
15kg coriander
80kg daal/lentils
80kg butter
7kg salt

Are you as secretly relieved as I am that I’m not one of the volunteers who will be peeling and slicing that mountain of veg! That’s a lot of potential compost too! It’s all in a good cause though so fair play to all of those who are involved in the organisation of this event and I’m sure there will be great camaraderie amongst everyone involved. If you’re available and would like to volunteer to help you can email foodgloriousfoodsife@gmail.com)

As part of the afternoon a few initiatives will be highlighted including:

VOICE will be launching its food waste campaign and advocating that the government adopt the Good Samaritan Food Act which relieves the liability from sharing leftover food whilst encouraging the government to offer tax deductions around food donations.

Stop Food Waste aims to highlight the problem of food waste and how reducing food waste removes the cost associated with disposal.

Food Glorious Food is launching an App to match businesses with surplus food to charities requiring food.

Bia Foodbank highlighting the Foodbank’s need for premises in Dublin to further develop its services.

Take a look at this brilliant TED video where Tristram Stuart talks about his passion for using and raising awareness around food waste and how it began with his pigs.

For further information check out:

www.voiceireland.org
www.stopfoodwaste.ie
www.feeding5k.org

Will you be going? Hope to see you there!! You can sign up and register your interest on the Feeding5K Facebook Page and please, spread the word!