King Charles will mark his 76th birthday on Thursday by opening the first two Coronation Food hubs on the first anniversary of his legacy project.
On his milestone birthday last year, Charles launched his Coronation Food, which aims to help those in need of food, while at the same time reducing surplus food being thrown away.
A year on, the King will open the initiative’s first two Coronation Food hubs – one in person and one virtually.
The hubs – major distribution centres, designed to save and circulate tonnes of surplus food – are set to transform the ability of charities like FareShare and the Felix Project to support communities in need.
In celebration of both the King’s birthday and the opening of the two facilities, the hub he visits will host a ‘surplus food festival’ with meals created from food which would otherwise have gone to waste.
During his visit, Charles will tour the new facility, meet beneficiaries and representatives of food banks, schools and community groups.
The project says there are 14 million people in the UK facing food insecurity, with food banks warning of rising demand.
The Coronation Food Project is investing in a network of hubs, adding scale and capacity to warehouses, boosting cold storage facilities and funding lorries, vans and drivers to boost their distribution capacity.
For example, a newly installed industrial freezer, which The King will view during the visit, will increase capacity by 400%, significantly improving the charity’s ability to preserve more surplus food.
It comes after the initiative gave £715,000 in community food grants to 33 organisations across the UK in March.
The funding helped UK charities to improve access to food for the most vulnerable through both supporting existing successful initiatives and funding innovative ideas.
The main aims of the Coronation Food Project are to save more surplus food, supercharge UK food distribution networks and support the wider sector with flexible funding.
In just 12 months, the initiative has made remarkable progress towards reaching its three goals.
Working with charities FareShare and the Felix Project, along with leaders from across the food industry, the Coronation Food Project has already saved an additional 940 tonnes of surplus food – equivalent to 2,240,000 meal portions.
In addition, £15 million has been raised to design, build and run a network of up to ten Coronation Food Hubs across the UK
To coincide with its launch last year, the King wrote a piece for The Big Issue, where he shared his concern about “cost of living pressures” existing at a time when tonnes of food is being wasted.
He wrote of his desire to create a “lasting legacy to help others”, which suggests the monarch is resolute on making food waste a major tenant of his reign.
The King’s determination to bridge the gap between food waste and food need marks a continuation of his earlier royal initiatives, donating fridges and freezers to charities and helping educate young people about food supply and production.
