La Rochelle hosts “anti-waste banquet” for 500 guests

The “Fill Stomachs, Not Rubbish Bins” (“Remplir les ventres, pas les poubelles”) association has organised the event, calling on market stall owners to donate any food they have not been able to sell that morning, which they would otherwise have been forced to throw away.

The event will also make use of supermarket products whose “sell-by dates” have passed, but which are still perfectly edible, explained teacher and association member David Rahou, speaking to local news source France 3 Nouvelle-Aquitaine.

The “anti-gaspi (anti-waste)” banquet is to take place in the Laleu park in the town at 13h today, welcoming over 500 people and aiming to prove that great meals can be made with “waste” food.

Anyone can attend, as long as they bring their own plate and cutlery.

The menu will include gazpacho, panzanella, potato curry, chocolate cake, and fruit crumble, and everything will be home-cooked by members of several organisations taking part.

“We work hard on the presentation of the foods, to give them a second ‘youth’”, explained head chef Nicholas Nadreau, also speaking to France 3. “The idea is to remove this barrier, which says that if a product isn’t beautiful, it’s not healthy. That is not necessarily the case."