Council handing out a thousand free lunches to highlight food waste

A YORKSHIRE COUNCIL and its waste management provider are to offer a thousand free lunches to residents to highlight the amount of food that is wasted.

On average each household throws away around £50 of food each month in the UK, meaning more than £12 bn worth of food ends up in landfill nationally.

To highlight the issue Wakefield Council and Shanks are inviting residents to a ‘Feed the 1,000’ event on Saturday 19 September between 11am and 3pm.

The event, will see professional and aspiring chefs create 1,000 meals for the event.

The majority of ingredients used are being supplied for free by local producers and supermarkets and include produce that may otherwise have been thrown away. This includes items that have passed their sell-by date, but not their best before date.

Coun Maureen Cummings, the cabinet member for environment and communities, said: “This is a fantastic event which brings people together to share delicious food, while at the same time highlighting the important issue of food waste. So I’m encouraging people to come along, enjoy the day and find out more about what they can do.”

Colin Fletcher, contract director at Shanks Waste Management, said: “Food waste is one of the most environmentally damaging forms of waste to be sent to landfill. We are committed to making more from waste by diverting it from landfill and converting it into usable products.”