Feeding the 5,000 aims to bring Thanksgiving to the masses sustainably

Since last Thursday, design-heads and regular folks alike have been trotting down to an abandoned factory in order to take in all that is EDIT. Put on by the Design Exchange, EDIT: Expo for Design, Innovation and Technology explores design and the effect it could have on our world, de-snobbifying it and opening it up to the curious. A series of installations, workshops, lectures and more dive into everything from sustainable housing to the Impossible Burger (that one that tastes like meat but, um, is a touch greener). So how best to bring the festival to a close this weekend? By throwing a Thanksgiving feast for 5,000 people, naturally.


(IMAGE: FEEDBACK)

 

For this mammoth event, Feeding the 5000, EDIT has linked up with George Brown’s Chef School and Second Harvest, the country’s largest food rescue charity (yes, it’s just how it sounds). This is the first time that F5K, a global initiative founded by Feedback Global, has occurred in Toronto.

Their longterm goal? Cutting food waste neatly in half by 2030 and showing us all how it’s possible. 

The Food Network’s Bob Blumer, who is also an ambassador for the charity, will be hosting the feast, spinning out minestrone soup, green herb pistou and potato focaccia bread. The dishes will be whipped up from nothing-wrong-with-it surplus food that’s been saved from ending up in the landfill. Why waste perfectly decent food and harm the environment in the process? Exactly. 


(IMAGE: FEEDBACK)

 

Anyone and everyone is invited to both mow down on and help prepare for the Oct. 8 feast which is — bonus! — entirely free. Kitchen keeners can swing by George Brown Culinary School this Friday and Saturday to chop their way through mounds of grub. Those more interested in flexing those baking skills can lend a hand or two to the foccacia side of things at the Regent Park Community Centre. Come Thanksgiving Sunday, it’s time to eat.    

The Thanksgiving feast will start at 1 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 8 at East Harbour, 21 Don Roadway; George Brown Culinary School is located at 300 Adelaide St. E.; Regent Park Community Centre is at 402 Shuter St. 

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