Feeding The 5,000 To Serve Up Free Community Lunch, Highlight Solutions To Maine's Food Waste

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Feeding The 5,000 To Serve Up Free Community Lunch, Highlight Solutions To Maine's Food Waste

Friday, October 7, Portland, Maine will host New England’s first “Feeding the 5000” event, joining more than 40 cities in the UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Australia, and the U.S., in the worldwide movement to stop the massive waste of perfectly good food. Feeding the 5000 is the flagship event of Feedback, a UK-based environmental organization working to end food waste at every level of the food system.

Feeding the 5,000 Portland will serve up a free, delicious community lunch for thousands made entirely from local, fresh food that would have otherwise gone to waste.

More than a dozen nonprofit organizations have teamed up to bring Feeding the 5000 to Portland. The event takes place Friday, October 7, 11:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. at in Monument Square. The free meal and accompanying exhibits, presentations and demonstrations will highlight Maine's local food bounty and showcase common-sense solutions to the tragic amount of food being wasted in our communities. High-profile speakers and top local chefs will share their knowledge and experience and inspire Mainers to take action.

Volunteers will glean food from Maine farms to be prepared as a delicious free meal at the new Fork Food Lab. The lunch will be served at Monument Square on October 7th from 12-4pm and at other community meal locations. FMI www.feedingthe5000usa.org/portlandme/

Top chefs participating in the event include Sam Hayward of Fore Street; Andrew Taylor and Mike Wiley of Hugos, Eventide, and Honeypaw; David Levi of Vinland; Scott London of Rossobianco; and Matt Brown of Browne Trading.

Speakers will include Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling and Good Shepherd Food Bank President Kristen Miale, among others.

It will take many hands to pull off Feeding the 5000.

To sign up to volunteer, visit http://feedbackglobal.org/ABOUT-US/GET-INVOLVED/VOLUNTEERFEEDINGTHE5000FALL2016/.

WHEN:

Friday, October 7, 2016, 11:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.;

first meals served at noon.

WHERE:

Monument Square in Portland, Maine

Feeding the 5000, Portland, Maine is co-hosted by the Cumberland County Food Security Council, Healthy Acadia, and the Natural Resources Council of Maine, Feedback and The Rockefeller Foundation. In Partnership with: the Portland Food Co-op, Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program, the Locker Project, Maine Farmland Trust, Good Shepherd Food Bank, Greater Portland Council of Governments, the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, the City of Portland, and many more!

Judy Berk, Communications Director judy@nrcm.org . (207) 430-0103 . mobile (207) 462.2192
Natural Resources Council of Maine . 3 Wade Street . Augusta ME 04330
www.NRCM.org - Protecting the nature of Maine - join today!