Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
    China
    Home / China / Society

    Fight food waste, save people, planet

    By BO LEUNG in London | CHINA DAILY | Updated: 2020-10-06 07:34
    Share
    Share - WeChat
    Plan Zheroes staff members and volunteers distribute food at The Real Food Market at King's Cross, London, in July last year. [Photo/CHINA DAILY]

    Volunteers, charities combine to prevent hunger

    On a September morning last year in London's Borough Market, a group of nearly 200 volunteers donned aprons and sharpened their cooking skills to help feed people facing food poverty in the United Kingdom's capital and to prevent food waste.

    The event, Wok for 1,000, was part of celebrity chef Jeremy Pang's work to support the charity Plan Zheroes, which aims to help connect food businesses with charities to redistribute surplus food and support measures to help prevent food waste.

    The event produced about 1,300 meals that were distributed across London for those in need.

    Organizers hoped the event would raise awareness of food waste and food poverty.

    Pang said he decided to act after learning about the problem of wasted food, and said the battle to cut wastage is ongoing.

    According to the Waste and Resources Action Programme, also known as WRAP, the annual food waste from UK households, plus the hospitality and food service sector, manufacturing and the retail and wholesale sectors was around 9.5 million metric tons in 2018.

    WRAP said about 70 percent of the wasted food, worth over 19 billion pounds ($24 billion) a year, could have been eaten.

    Pang, founder of the cookery teaching facility School of Wok in London's Covent Garden, said minimizing food waste starts with education.

    "Although there are a lot of initiatives set up to tackle the problem of food waste in the UK, it's still a massive problem," he said. "There's a lot more to do and it's about teaching people that it's OK to use the last bit of wilted lettuce, for example, that's not gone off but you can still use it."

    The annual Wok for 1,000 charity event has taken place for the last four years, but this year there won't be a physical event due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

    Instead, Pang is hoping to put together a virtual "cookalong" or class to continue to spread the food waste prevention message and help those in need. "It's also about confidence building, cooking and education on how to cook simple dishes at home and use up your leftovers or products that would otherwise go in the bin," he said.

    Despite the huge food surplus, many people are still going hungry. WRAP estimates that some 8.4 million people are struggling to afford to eat in the UK.

    A report commissioned by the UK government's Environmental Audit Committee found that the level of food insecurity in the UK is one of the highest in Europe.

    The report estimates that nearly one in five UK children age 15 or younger lives in a home where the parents cannot afford to put food on the table

    "Sadly, the issues surrounding food poverty are not going away. In fact, the number of people experiencing hunger has risen sharply in recent years, and we are seeing more and more demand from front line charities during the pandemic as people face job losses or similar crises," said Dee Vadukul, business development manager at Plan Zheroes.

    "Awareness of food waste has most certainly increased over the years. Since Plan Zheroes was founded in 2009, many other zero-food-waste organizations have been established. We are really proud to work in a collaborative manner with a lot of them."

    Since the UK's lockdown measures began easing, WRAP has raised concerns that the move could lead to more wasted food.

    According to research WRAP conducted in June, although people have found ways to manage their food better self-reported waste has risen by 30 percent compared with the early stages of the lockdown.

    "While concerns about going to the shops and running out of food motivated people to waste less in April, those motivations are weakening with restrictions lifting. Combined with the added time pressures of some 'normal' life resuming, such as more people returning to places of work and some pupils returning to school in June, people's commitment to wasting less food is waning," WRAP said.

    Vadukul said that from Plan Zheroes' perspective, the demand for surplus food has never been higher.

    "Our charities rely on food donations to help keep their overall running costs as low as possible. We are seeing donations made by businesses claimed within seconds by charities. This is partly because not all businesses have fully reopened, but also the need for food donations has increased due to the pandemic," she said.

    1 2 Next   >>|
    Top
    BACK TO THE TOP
    English
    Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
    License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

    Registration Number: 130349
    FOLLOW US
     
    亚洲午夜福利精品无码| 亚洲中文字幕久久精品无码APP| 亚洲国产精品无码久久久不卡| 亚洲免费无码在线| 日韩精品无码专区免费播放| 无码av高潮喷水无码专区线| 中出人妻中文字幕无码| 免费无码黄十八禁网站在线观看| 亚洲AV无码欧洲AV无码网站 | 无码人妻精品一区二区三| 国产精品综合专区中文字幕免费播放 | 毛片无码免费无码播放| 中文字幕精品一区二区三区视频| 亚洲AV蜜桃永久无码精品| 99热门精品一区二区三区无码| 亚洲精品无码不卡在线播放HE| 欧美一级一区二区中文字幕| 日韩精品一区二区三区中文| 被夫の上司に犯中文字幕| 久久精品无码一区二区三区免费| 久久Av无码精品人妻系列| 无码中文av有码中文a| 中文字幕乱偷无码AV先锋| 熟妇人妻系列aⅴ无码专区友真希| 最近中文字幕电影大全免费版| 暖暖免费在线中文日本| 国产中文欧美日韩在线| 亚洲精品中文字幕乱码三区 | 国产精品亚洲w码日韩中文| 中文字幕亚洲精品| 欧美日韩国产中文精品字幕自在自线| 日韩中文字幕一区| 最近中文字幕在线| 无码H黄肉动漫在线观看网站| 成人无码网WWW在线观看| 国产AⅤ无码专区亚洲AV| 亚洲VA中文字幕无码毛片| 人妻少妇精品无码专区二区 | 中文字字幕在线中文乱码不卡| 亚洲gv天堂无码男同在线观看| a中文字幕1区|