Project Name: The Real Junk Food Project Project managers/designers: Adam Smith Web link: http://www.realjunkfoodbrighton.co.uk Description: The Real Junk Food Project Brighton intercept food destined for landfill to turn into healthy meals to serve to the community on a 'Pay As You Feel' basis. Not just homeless people but low-income families, students and anyone struggling financially. The revolutionary 'pay as you feel' concept encourages people to think about what that plate of food means to them, if they can't afford to pay money, then they may want to wash up or weigh some intercepted food or spread the word about the concept and the project. Food is a basic amenity that should be available to EVERYONE regardless of financial status. Almost half the food the world produces - equivalent to 2bn tonnes - ends up as waste every year, yet there are 842 million hungry people in the world. An estimated 18 million tonnes of food is wasted in Britain annually, from farm to fork. In the UK, US and Europe we have almost twice as much food as is required by the nutritional needs of the people. 'Use by' and 'best before' dates plus our desire for aesthetically pleasing vegetables, means the odd looking, but perfectly edible vegetables don't even go to food markets. An estimated 20 to 40% of UK fruit and vegetables are rejected before they reach the shops – mostly because they do not match the supermarkets' excessively strict cosmetic standards. They end up in the bin, along side out of date food that could be feeding people. Our bodies' senses are capable of telling us if food is OK to eat or not. We should learn to trust our senses, not dates on packages.With just the food wasted in the US alone, we could satisfy the hunger of the billion malnourished humans around the globe. The solution is staring us in the face. `the Project doesn’t just aim to use this catastrophic problem of food waste as a solution to hunger, but aims to use it as a way of raising awareness, to teach people how to be waste conscious, how to live sustainably and self sufficiently. We want to teach people how to grow their own food, how to compost waste, and how to eat healthily, as well as understand the effects waste has on their environment. Added by: Alison Rees