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King's Coronation Food Project to help 14 million people facing food insecurity in UK

In 2021 The Prince's Foundation launched the pilot scheme “Food for the Future” to help educate young people about food supply and production

Tuesday November 14th was the 75th birthday of King Charless III, and the first time the event was celebrated by the ruling monarch as head of state. It was an opportunity for the King, very much aware of present and future generations challenges, to work and announce one of his many projects related to food and the environment, seeking to bridge the gap between food waste and food need across UK.

Coordinated by the King Charles III Charitable Fund, the Coronation Food Project seeks to bridge the gap between food waste and food need across all four nations of the United Kingdom, helping people and helping the planet.

There are three pillars to The Coronation Food Project:

• Saving more surplus food.
• Supercharging food distribution networks to ensure surplus produce can reach those who need it most, through the creation of several Coronation Food Hubs.
• Delivering a flexible funding programme to support the wider sector and a consortium of pioneering food-rescue initiatives.

The Coronation Food Project builds on previous work in this area. In December 2022, a £1million fund was launched, which included a personal donation by His Majesty The King. Through this fund, over 800 commercial fridges and freezers have been distributed to key locations across the United Kingdom – which has transformed the sector’s capacity to save, store and redistribute surplus food. There is an urgent need to do more, with up to 14 million people facing food insecurity in the United Kingdom.

In 2021 The Prince's Foundation launched the pilot scheme “Food for the Future” to help educate young people about food supply and production. This education program formed part of the Foundation's wider food waste initiative known as 'Making Food Go Further'.

Inspired by the King's work with food waste and educating young people about food supply, The Coronation Food Project seeks to bridge the gap between food waste and food need across the UK, helping people and helping the planet.

The launch took place at the South Oxfordshire Food and Education Alliance (SOFEA), part of the FareShare network which distributes surplus food to charities.

Since its launch in 2014, SOFEA has helped over 400 young people gain qualifications, skills and work experience whilst helping to transform their local communities through projects such as community larders and food surplus distribution.

The King and Queen met staff and volunteers, hearing about the ways food waste can be used for social good. Surplus food is redistributed to 120 community organisations in need across Oxfordshire, Berkshire, and Wiltshire.

With the help of The Coronation Food Project, food networks across the UK will be supported to reuse greater amounts of surplus food.

After a short conversation about the positive impact of SOFEA on the local community, The King and Queen moved to four packing stations where staff and volunteers were packing surplus food which will be distributed to a range of community organisations. At this point, Richard Kennell will explain the type of surplus food that is normally received at the centre, the organisations and families which benefit from it and how The Coronation Food Project can make a difference.

The King viewed chillers storing fresh food, watched FareShare food vans being loaded with goods for distribution and visited a kitchen garden on the site.