Section of the east window in St. Mary's church, Barton Mills, Suffolk. Photo: TheRevSteve

5,000 people are invited to a free lunch at Trafalgar Square in London on December 16th. The menu will include hot soups made from vegetables cast out because they are not cosmetically perfect, and a range of sandwiches and freshly-made fruit smoothies pressed on the day by customised bicycles.

It sounds like an inspirational idea. Tonnes of fresh produce donated by farms, packers and markets are waiting to be prepared in kitchens. The massive lunch is then delivered by Fareshare, the largest food redistribution charity in the UK and served by volunteers to people joining the lunch. An array of smoothie makers powered by bicycles will produce fresh fruit smoothies using surplus fruit. Thomasina Miers, the English TV chef, will be giving a cookery class to demonstrate how to make most of the food we buy.

Here’s the organiser of the event, Tristram Stuart, writing in Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal:

Most supermarket managers were not interested in the issue of what to do with unsold food. Their activities were constrained by company policies which determined that surplus should be sent to landfill. They were in the business of selling food – and many bosses believed that giving it away would undermine sales. It made more sense for the supermarkets to lock the food in bins and send it off to be buried, regardless of the social and environmental costs. And while the population has become more aware of food waste, this remains the default position for the industry today.

A feature story published in the Financial Times last July explains why good food is being thrown away. Fears of food poisoning forced food retailers and manufacturers to label products with early “used-by” dates. The labelling system is confusing to customers, many of whom throw away food  before it is really necessary. A list of products thrown away by major UK supermarkets in between 2007 and 2008 can be found here.