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
     
    六月婷婷中文字幕| 成人午夜福利免费无码视频| 亚洲AⅤ无码一区二区三区在线| 亚洲中文字幕丝袜制服一区| 亚洲国产成人精品无码久久久久久综合 | 在线看无码的免费网站| 在人线AV无码免费高潮喷水| 视频一区中文字幕| 丝袜熟女国偷自产中文字幕亚洲| 国产产无码乱码精品久久鸭| 亚洲精品无码久久久影院相关影片 | 无码AV岛国片在线播放| 亚洲欧美精品一区久久中文字幕| 日本阿v视频高清在线中文| JLZZJLZZ亚洲乱熟无码| 无码丰满少妇2在线观看| 最近中文字幕大全免费视频| 中文字幕人妻无码系列第三区| 下载天堂国产AV成人无码精品网站| 久久久久亚洲av无码专区喷水| 日韩一区二区三区无码影院 | 精品人妻大屁股白浆无码| 亚洲av无码一区二区三区在线播放 | 中文字幕无码免费久久| 无码精品人妻一区二区三区影院| 99久久国产热无码精品免费久久久久 | 亚洲.欧美.中文字幕在线观看| 波多野结衣亚洲AV无码无在线观看| 久久久久亚洲AV无码专区体验| 久久久久久人妻无码| 无码AV天堂一区二区三区| 久久久久亚洲AV无码永不| 黄桃AV无码免费一区二区三区| 免费人妻无码不卡中文字幕系| 精品无码一区在线观看| AA区一区二区三无码精片| AV无码人妻中文字幕| 亚洲AV中文无码乱人伦| 五月天中文字幕mv在线| 日韩人妻无码精品无码中文字幕| 极品粉嫩嫩模大尺度无码视频|