In the United States we throw away 40 percent of our food supply each year, even though 49 million Americans don’t have enough to eat. In an effort to shed light on the growing crisis of food waste and the practical solutions available, Feedback, a London-based nonprofit organization dedicated to ending food waste at every level of the food system, has, with the support of The Rockefeller Foundation, partnered with DC Central Kitchen and more than 40 other like-minded organizations and chefs to bring Feeding the 5000 to Washington, DC.
As Feedback’s flagship campaign, Feeding the 5000 events showcase and promote the positive and delicious solutions to the global food waste crisis. In DC, the event will bring together the public and an alliance of partner organizations to raise awareness of the scale of food waste in the U.S. and globally.
DC Central Kitchen invites its friends, investors, and supporters to join us at #Feeding5000DC on May 18th from 11am-4pm on the Woodrow Wilson Plaza of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center (1300 Pennsylvania Ave, NW) where DC Central Kitchen and Feedback will provide 5,000 members of the public with a free meal made entirely from fresh, top-quality ingredients that would have otherwise been wasted.
Given DCCK’s experience in food recovery and our daily meal operation preparing over 12,000 meals for DC’s homeless shelters, rehabilitation clinics, and schools, DC Central Kitchen will both procure the ingredients and prepare the meal for Feedback’s Feeding the 5000 DC event. DC Central Kitchen’s Chairman Emeritus and Culinary Ambassador for the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves chef José Andrés; Chairman of DC’s Food Policy Council, chef Spike Mendelsohn; chef Anthony Lombardo; and other acclaimed foodies and food policy experts are expected to lend their support to the festivities. The event will also showcase the work of DC government, nonprofit organizations, and other partners in the fight against food waste and will highlight a range of issues linked to the global food waste crisis and the practical solutions available.
The largest response to food waste and hunger in the country and now on more than 50 high school and college campuses across the country, The Campus Kitchens Project will host DC’s “Disco Chop Party” on May 17th, where student volunteers and seniors will work together to help slice and dice the recovered vegetables that will be served at the main festival the following day. The Campus Kitchen’s Project is DC Central Kitchen’s national arm replicating our model of food recovery and meal distribution on high school and college campuses across the country.
Feedback has been catalyzing national movements to tackle food waste around the world. Since 2009, their guerilla style events include over 34 Feeding the 5000 events in locations such as Paris, Dublin, Milan, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Brussels, equating to more than 170,000 meals. Encouraged by its success in helping reduce household waste by 21% in the UK, and in catalyzing the food waste reduction movement in France, Feedback is now teaming up with American citizens, governments, non-governmental organizations, experts and celebrity chefs together to kick-start and scale up the solutions to food waste nationwide.
DCCK friends, investors, and supporters are invited to join us at #Feeding5000DC on May 18th and engage in the global conversation to take food waste #OffTheMenu.
To learn more or to volunteer visit feedbackglobal.org and follow @FeedbackOrg.