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| ©Jonathan Brady/AFP |
The King is preparing to launch his first major personal project as monarch, an initiative to bridge the gap between food waste and food needs. The project, to be unveiled in the autumn, will build on the Coronation Food Project, a national scheme created to tackle food insecurity and waste. The King is passionate about the subject and has previously voiced support for "use up" days, which can reduce food waste by up to a third. Personal efforts to save resources include feeding kitchen food scraps to his chickens and converting his Aston Martin sports car to run on surplus wine and whey from the cheese process.
An estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of food are wasted every year around the globe, with more than half of it thrown away at home. The King has insisted that "informed choices" can help cut the "colossal" amount of waste and believes tackling the problem could reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by up to 10% because farmers would be under less pressure.
The Coronation Food Project, given financial support from the Prince of Wales's Charitable Fund (PWCF), aims to ensure edible surplus food and waste produce that is usually thrown away goes to charities supporting those in need or is reused. The PWCF receives most of its income from the Waitrose Duchy Organic brand, established by the then Prince Charles in 1992, which has raised more than £40 million through the sales of the products.
In September 2021, the King teamed up with chef Jamie Oliver to launch Food for the Future, a project that aimed to educate children on how to eat sustainably and cut back on waste in the kitchen. The project will build on the Coronation Food Project, a national scheme to tackle food insecurity and waste.
