A group of young people advocating food-sharing yesterday gathered in New Taipei City’s Yonghe District (永和) for a cooking activity that turned leftover food into palatable dishes.
About 20 people took part in the event, which the New Taipei City Urban and Rural Development Department called “a kind of social experiment” it is aiming to promote.
Participants were encouraged to bring surplus food to cook or exchange with other people, said Ann Huang (黃尹宣), founder of the Pick Food Up kitchen.
She said she came upon the idea when studying at the Slow Food organization in Italy.
Many food products are discarded long before they are inedible, she said, pointing at a box of tomatoes that looked inedible, but was totally fine for making sauce.
About 36,880 tonnes of edible food are discarded annually by supermarkets and restaurants, Food and Drug Administration data released in May last year showed.
Before the event, Huang said she had contacted restaurants and food suppliers to see whether they could offer food for free, but was met mostly with silence.
“Many people on the Internet say you are doing a good thing, but few of them would join you in the real world,” she said, adding that food sharing is growing in Taiwan, but very slowly.
Social issues such as environmental protection and human rights are inseparable, and reducing food waste is a simple thing that people can do in their daily lives, Foodsharing Taiwan member Hsieh Tsung-yu (謝琮宇) said.
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