ood Waste ?
‘ Once the awareness spreads , charity automatically happens .’
In India , I grew up in the suburbs where drinking water was available for 10 minutes a day and power cuts lasted anywhere between 4 to 12 hours a day . I remember queuing up with my mom with a ration card in hand , allocated by local council and based on how many in our family . We were given a rationed amount of rice , oil , sugar , lentils and cooking fuel or gas , are our much needed commodities . We wouldn ’ t get any refills until the same day of the following month so whatever we were allocated we had to make do with it for a month , and as a consequence Indian mothers were very good at budgeting and rationing . This helped us develop a lot of respect for food , water , electricity and gas and how to use them efficiently to make ours last .
I am writing about this today because sooner or later many countries in the world will face this situation where the production of food will not match the demand for it . Not just because the land is slowly losing its fertility and climate is changing , but also because we keep throwing away food . In my opinion food wastage is one of the world ’ s biggest problems . Approximately 1 / 3rd of the food produced in the world is lost or wasted which equates to 1.3 billion tonnes . The top richest countries contribute to most of this wasted food and the UK ’ s share alone is about 7 million tonnes . The facts are shocking and it is a burning problem . I believe it is not just the responsibility of supermarkets , chefs or food processing units but it comes down to every single one of us , it all begins at home .
The awareness of the problem needs to be passed on to the next generations , on how important is not to waste food . Food recycling is the only way forward . We all tend to cook more than what we need so we need to have a back-up plan for the leftover food . Left over rice at my home will be our breakfast the next day as coconut rice , lemon rice or steamed rice cakes . Left over chicken curry becomes a wrap filling for the next day .
We are heading towards the festive season and there will be massive amounts of food produced all across the globe for friends and families . We all enjoy a good Christmas spread but we need to not load our plates with so much food that we are unable to finish it . The leftovers can be re used in a different form again , such as sandwich fillings or a curry on Boxing Day . Also it is a good idea to have a small menu which is easy to prepare , rather than having a massive spread that will leave a lot of leftover food . Charity is secondary ; the priority here is to start the practice of not over-shopping , not to cook more than is needed and finally not throwing leftovers into the bin unnecessarily .
I am proud to be part of the Brighton food scene where other chefs like me take food wastage as a serious issue and do whatever they can to minimise it . We all may have different ways of doing it but the cause remains the same . Supporting farmers is another thing which I love about Brighton ’ s best restaurants . Fareshare , Action against Hunger , Curry for Change and many more charities are working very hard to raise funds and awareness of food wastage and we all proudly support them . If this awareness spreads to all the food outlets in the county and everyone does their little bit then the world will be a happier place .
We will have to thank Fareshare here , a charity that collects surplus food wastage and redistributes among the under privileged . The numbers from their website last year are shocking when it comes to food waste but also inspiring on how it all was converted into meals . 10 , 795 tonnes of food was saved from being wasted last year by them which was then sent to 4,652 charities that prepared 21.9 million meals . 10,795 tonnes is a fraction of 7 million tonnes that ’ s been thrown away every year , so just imagine what difference it makes if
most of that food surplus is converted into meals rather than getting binned .
Supporting such organisations is not charity , it ’ s more like a social responsibility , my team and I at Curry Leaf Cafe take pride in helping such a great cause . This year we actively got involved with Fareshare , Action against Hunger and Curry for Change , tackling the same food problem in different ways . My team are more than happy to donate the money that they might spend on a couple of beers or a pack of cigarettes once in a few months , as they are made aware of what difference that little amount will make . We raised £ 500 for Curry for Change last year and we received a post card form India thanking us , letting us know that with that money , farmers of two villages now have continuous supply of running water to grow crop all year long . They are now producing enough crops to feed their family and also feed the rest of the village , resulting in the biggest satisfaction and best feeling to us all . Food for thought .
By Kanthi Thamma Curryleafcafe . com
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