Now I love to cook. Pottering around my kitchen makes me really happy. But catering for more than about ten people makes me feel a little bit panicky, so I take my hat off to Cambridge Sustainable Food who are teaming up with Cambridge Foodcycle to feed a thousand, yes A THOUSAND, people from surplus food that might otherwise have been thrown away. This amazing event is happening on Friday 20 October outside Sainsbury’s in Brooks Road and is part of the Sainsbury’s backed “Waste Less, Save More” campaign which aims to raise awareness of food waste issues. All are welcome to join in, meet the incredible team of cooks and enjoy the free food.
Feed the 1000 launches the third Cambridge Pumpkin Festival, a city wide celebration of food and autumn. Events include a Vegan Pumpkin Feast at Arjuna on Mill Road, a children’s cake decorating workshop at lifestyle cafe Co. in Cherry Hinton, a pumpkin picnic, cookery workshops and Dinner in the Dark, a charity feast with extra puddings for the best fancy dress! Restaurants and cafes across the city will be offering seasonal pumpkin based dishes.
Children will love the Kids’ Disco Soup event, to be held at St Andrew’s Church Hall on 23 October. Here’s a chance for them to chop vegetables which would otherwise have been wasted, cook them into a delicious soup and eat the fruits of their labours together while a DJ takes care of the music so that everyone can throw some shapes on the dance floor! Sam Dyer, Food Partnership Co-ordinator at Cambridge Sustainable Food, tells me that Disco Soup is now an international phenomenon, part of a worldwide movement to inspire action against food waste.
Many of the Pumpkin Festival events are free. If you’d like to get involved as a volunteer, there’s more information on the website.
The Pumpkin Festival will draw to a close on 28 October with a Farmers’ Market (held in conjunction with Thirsty) at the Museum of Technology. Here you will meet local producers and suppliers, sample their wares and enjoy plenty of free activities including apple pressing and bike powered smoothie making. It’ll be a fitting end to a week which will leave us a bit more thoughtful about the ways we can minimise our food waste, enjoy a healthy and sustainable diet and support our wonderful city’s sustainable food economy. And we’ll also have had a lot of fun celebrating all things pumpkiny!!
http://www.cambridgesustainablefood.org
http://www.cambridgepumpkinfestival.org.uk
http://www.foodcycle.org.uk/location/cambridge
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