King Charles III has a vision: to create a fairer and more sustainable future for all – a future where no food goes to waste and nobody is left hungry. The King, for decades, has been a champion of the circular economy, farming communities and the need for increased food security as a nation. Since his Coronation, he has been pressing for a step-change in this area moving forward.

The Coronation Food Project is inspired by King Charles III which seeks to tackle food waste and food insecurity across all four nations of the United Kingdom. The project hopes to establish an enduring legacy in His Majesty's name by encouraging others to take part in the fund's vision and mission and to help it grow. The Project aims to rescue surplus food and redistribute it to those who need it most, whilst supporting local farmers and reducing carbon emissions.

THE UK FOOD PARADOX

UK FOOD POVERTY

Despite being the sixth richest country in the world, millions in the UK are struggling to access the food they need.

The UK’s Food Poverty rate is amongst the highest in Europe. In January 2023 it was 17.7% of Households (The Food Foundation)
9 million adults and 4 million children in the UK are going hungry this year – more than double the number in 2022
In London alone, at least 115 million extra meals are needed every year (of which 18m are needed for 275,000 children, 83m are for 2.6m adults in food poverty and 13m are needed for 12,000 homeless adults) (McKinsey)
Of the households going hungry, 40% are in employment
More than 760,000 people went to Trussell Trust Food Banks alone for the first time between April 2022 and March 2023 (The Trussell Trust)
Food parcels are being delivered at a rate higher than ever recorded (The Trussell Trust)
Food poverty is the worst in the Northeast: 27.8% of Households face difficulties in affording food. Scotland also has high levels of food poverty at 24.3% (The Food Foundation)

Poverty has a direct impact on health: on average, more healthy foods are three times more expensive calorie for calorie than less healthy foods. Without effective and meaningful intervention, rising food poverty will continue to cause hunger, drive health inequalities and result in poorer life chances.

YET AT THE SAME TIME WE HAVE RECORD LEVELS OF FOOD WASTE…

The UK produces the highest amount of food waste in Europe, throwing away around 9.5 million tonnes of food waste in a single year. (WRAP)

Food waste from farms

25% of food waste in the UK occurs on farms with 3 million tonnes of edible food is wasted each year (more than retail, manufacturing and HaFS (hotel and food sector) combined Farmers insights to add (WWF and Tesco)
The food waste from farms produces 6m tonnes of CO2 equivalent (WWF and Tesco)
Worth an estimated £1.8bn to farmers/producer (WWF and Tesco)
Why does it become a surplus – due to damage during transportation, last-minute order changes/ cancellations and it being out-graded in packhouse (i.e. not perfect produce)

Surplus food from manufacturing, retail/wholesale, and THE food & beverage industrIES

Just under 3 million tonnes of food is wasted per annum by manufacturing, hospitality & food services and retail (WRAP)
Representing 30% of all food lost and wasted in the UK (WRAP)
Of the 30% edible surplus food wasted: - 16% is from Manufacturing (eg. making ready meals), 2% from Retail/Wholesale (supermarkets), 12% from Hospitality & Food Service (WRAP)
Supermarkets throw away 100,000 tonnes of readily available and edible food – the equivalent of 250 million meals going uneaten (The Grocer)

WE NEED TO REDUCE THE TRAGEDY OF FOOD WASTE AT THE SAME TIME WE SHOULD NOT BE LIVING IN A WORLD WHERE MORE PEOPLE GO HUNGRY

THE CORONATION PROJECT PLANS

This new initiative will work with farmers, supermarkets, and organisations to ensure excess food is redistributed to support communities. There are an existing set of pioneering food-rescue charities across the UK that are leading the way that the project will support.

By 2030 the project aims to:

To double the amount of surplus food rescued every year in the UK
To expand upon existing best-in-class logistics frameworks to deliver as much food as possible
To embed sustainability into everything they do
His Majesty King Charles III has already supported this work with a personal donation in 2022 funding over 800 fridges and freezers for hundreds of food banks and community groups across the UK. Note previously the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund (PWFC) has also provided over £70m in financial support to various charities across 40 years.

The initial focus will be on charitable food distribution in order to maximise initial impact however funding is required. There is a need to augment last-mile delivery fleets with new refrigerated vans, fund long distance distribution of surpluses across the UK, expand warehouse and distribution centres as well as recruit and sustain more volunteers. The project will need more capacity to rescue more and different kinds of foods, increasing experimentation with industrial kitchens and blast freezers.

THE SOLUTION IS COORDINATION & COLLABORATION

As a leading nation with an advanced logistics industry built around our 70 airports, 40 major ports, excellent rail links and toll-free motorways (UK Dept for Business & Trade), the UK has the ideal combination of infrastructure components to move goods and people around the country in simple, affordable ways. Frontline partners, the likes of The Trussell Trust and FareShare (which includes the Felix Project part of the wider FareShare network) are already doing amazing things and need to be both turbocharged to do more and utilise their best practices to be rolled out in more areas. The technology, infrastructure and solutions are there. This is a coordination and collaboration challenge that can be overcome.

For more details or to be involved, please contact The Chair of Development Committee: Dori@thecfp.org.uk

Also, more information can be found here at PWCF

The Coronation Food Project is an initiative of The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund trading name of The Prince of Wales Charitable Foundation, a registered charity in England and Wales (1127255) and company (06777589).

THE KING'S CORONATION FOOD PROJECT