In Australia, in Melbourne, there is a social and community kitchen project called Open Space, which brings people together and reduces food waste
Every year huge quantities of food, worth about 5 billion euros, are wasted in the homes of Australians, an alarming official figure if we consider that it concerns only private and not commercial waste. To deal with this problem, from 2013 to Melbourne she's born Open Table, a charity that shares free lunches in different neighborhoods of the city, using only food that would otherwise be wasted. Their activity therefore goes well beyond that of any canteen run by volunteers or a simple social kitchen, but it is thought a lot to reduce food waste how much for shorten social and cultural distances between community members.
Unity is strength … and saves wasted food
Food has the extraordinary ability to unite us, no matter who we are or what our origins are. This is one of the motto of the Open Table staff, which it announces every month gastronomic meetings and events always free and always open to any member of the community, without any social distinction. The lunches cooked by the organization's volunteers take place regularly in seven different community spaces, scattered in different areas of the city of Melbourne, and the food used is that donated by local companies or collected from supermarkets in the various neighborhoods of reference, i.e. all food products fresh and in good condition that would otherwise be thrown away. The unpredictability of the ingredients "saved" and cooked from time to time makes it impossible to have a pre-established menu, but it also represents a creative stimulus for volunteers in the kitchen. In this way the culinary and itinerant project of Open Table is stimulating and always different, just as the different are always different recipes prepared and inspired by world cuisines, which change according to the cultural backgrounds of the volunteer cooks. What always remains the same is the will to aim for a vegetarian menu, therefore accessible to all, with proposals and alternatives also vegan and gluten free. As the images shared on Open Table social channels testify, every meeting is different and every meeting is a success, a real community party in which you have the opportunity to get to know your neighbors, taste the delicious cooked dishes and find out more about problem of food waste.
The objectives achieved by Open Space
In addition to the environmental, culinary and community aspects of the initiatives, the Open Space staff has always taken care of information and dissemination. Both through their social channels and during seminars and debates, they do not miss an opportunity to talk about the global problem of food waste and its environmental impact and to give practical suggestions on how to reduce it in their homes and daily activities, for example through creative recipes to reuse leftovers and good practices to follow when purchasing food products. The non-profit organization has also recently disclosed goals achieved in 2019: 88 free organized lunches with over 3 thousand dishes served and the participation of about 30-70 people per meal, 4 tons of food saved is 18 "zero waste" workshops.
We can only hope that initiatives such as that of Open Table will inspire citizens around the world to learn how to avoid food waste and have a more responsible and aware attitude towards this problem, perhaps transforming leftover food into opportunities for meeting and discussion. .
Photo: Open table Australia social anti-waste kitchen_page facebook Open Table.jpg
Photo: Open Table anti-waste kitchen in Melbourne_Pagina FB Open Table.jpg
