Feeding the 5000 Events Spread Across America as Heat Rises in Fight Against Food Waste

LONDON, September 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

As part of the growing fight against food waste sweeping the United States, Feedback, the environmental nonprofit working to end waste at every level of the food system, today announced the next stage of its campaign to bring its popular Feeding the 5000 food waste awareness festivals to American cities this fall.

The events - where thousands of members of the public are given free meals made entirely from fresh ingredients that otherwise would have been wasted - expose the level of food waste and celebrate the delicious solutions to prevent it, all while ramping up the pressure on supermarkets and big businesses to end practices that needlessly cause much of this waste.

With support from The Rockefeller Foundation, and in partnership with scores of non-profits, chefs & government bodies, and in light of the success of Feeding the 5000 events in New York and Washington DC earlier this year, the campaign trail now includes:

• Feeding the 5000 Portland (Friday, October 7, 2016 in Monument Square, Portland, Maine)
• Feeding the Hudson Valley (Saturday, October 8, 2016 at Walkway Over the Hudson, Poughkeepsie, New York)
• Feeding the 5000 Front Range (Saturday, October 14, 2016 in Skyline Park in Denver, Colorado)

In coordination with these events, Feedback is calling on the public to sign a petition demanding that the food industry standardize food expiry labels which currently confuse the public, leading to the needless waste of millions of dollars worth of perfectly edible food. Standardizing date labels is the first of four concrete reforms Feedback advocates the US food industry progress, based on the organization's years of experience driving reform in Europe as well as in the UK, where already food waste has been cut by 20% - saving consumers billions of dollars and reducing carbon emissions equivalent to taking 1.8 million cars off the road.

Tristram Stuart, founder of Feedback, said, "The US government has made the boldest food waste reduction commitment in the world, aiming to halve food waste by 2030. I have never seen a country build momentum as fast from every quarter - public appetite, entrepreneurial innovation, government legislation and coordinated solution-building from the nonprofit sector, of which the Feeding the 5000 events are a perfect example. Now, It's time for the corporates to jump into action and help take food waste 'Off the Menu,' too."

"Working together, Feedback, The Rockefeller Foundation, and our vast networks of partners have been thrilled to see so many different people and organizations aligning to create a united front against wasted food," said Dr. Zia Khan, Vice President for Initiatives and Strategy at The Rockefeller Foundation. "It is only through cross-sector collaboration that we will be able to reach these ambitious but achievable goals, and we view the scalable, adaptable, and, most importantly, fun nature of Feeding the 5000 style events as an important step in building this momentum."

For more information: 

You can learn more about the Feeding the 5000 events in the USA, its national and city-specific partners and the fight against wasted food, and how to get involved at http://www.feedingthe5000usa.org and through following @FeedbackOrg and #F5KUSA

About Feedback and Feeding the 5000
Feedback is a nonprofit environmental organization (UK Registered Charity No: 1155064) working to end waste at every level of the food system. From its humble beginnings as a one-off event in London in 2009, Feedback's flagship Feeding the 5000 event has grown into a global campaign, taking place in more than 40 cities around the world and catalyzing local and international efforts to end food waste.

SOURCE Feedback