United States

Inspiring change across America

The first- ever Feeding the 5000 in the USA took place in Oakland, California. Following on from the success of this event, Jordan Figueiredo created the Ugly Fruit And Veg Campaign to highlight how much food is wasted in supply chains just because it doesn’t look right – this has led to widespread media coverage and global attention.

‘Feeding the 5000 Oakland is where it all started for me. Tristram Stuart’s work challenging the supermarket industry particularly calling out supermarket’s ridiculous use of strict cosmetic standards had a big impact on me and led to the development of the Ugly Fruit and Veg Campaign.’ Jordan Figueiredo

2016 was the year Feeding the 5000 went big in America – joining with over 100 partner organisations to host 5 events across the country.  Feedback’s work in the US gained massive media attention – we were featured in The New York Times, National Geographic, CNN and The Huffington Post. These events seeded a food waste movement across the USA, building on the expertise and passion of Feedback’s US partners.

America was the first country to commit to a national target of halving food waste by 2030 – to achieve this ambitious goal food businesses need to step up to the plate. When we brought our flagship campaign Feeding the 5000 to the US our number one ask was immediate industry-led date label standardisation – so people had access to clear, helpful information on their food, not a mish-mash of confusing labels, resulting in more food thrown away unnecessarily. We launched a petition that received over 30,000 signatures, this along with pressure from the food waste movement led to two major trade associations, the Food Marketing Institute and Grocery Manufacturers Association, released guidance on standardised date labelling.

Feeding the 5000 events are open to everyone and provide an opportunity for people from different walks of life to come together and envision a better food system. This was one account from a participant of Feeding the 5000 Front Range:

A lovely woman named Anita shared some life philosophy that pierced my heart at Feeding the 5000. As we stood together… she looked out into the crowd and said;

“You know why this event is important?” She leaned one arm on the table, closed one eye like a pirate focusing, coughed, and then raised her other hand above the crowd of people eating together in front of us. “Because never, in my 10 years on the streets in Denver, have I seen poor people, rich people, gay people, black & white people, all people eating and conversing together at the same table.”