The event took place in Manchester, Glasgow, West Berkshire, East Midlands and Birmingham, as part of the company’s ‘Chef for a Day’ campaign and partnership with food waste charity, Fareshare.
A range of skills sessions and cookery demonstrations saw Bidfood chefs inspire attendees “to be more innovative with surplus food” and showed them how to create ‘easily adaptable’ and nutritious recipes on a low budget.
They then produced a 100-cover buffet for people from low-income households and in rehabilitation, which included dishes such as risotto, stews, vegan breakfast bowls and ‘modern’ Indian food.
Service users were also given support to help build their skills and make them feel more confident to cook for themselves, in their own home.
Bidfood development chef Martin Eshelby said: “There are so many great charities out there who regularly support and feed people in need in their local communities.
“We wanted to organise a campaign to support these dedicated people by sharing our skills and knowledge, to teach them how to be more innovative when it comes to creating delicious and nutritious meals from food bank donations.”
It comes as figures reveal an estimated 1.9 million tonnes of food is thrown away each year - 250,000 tonnes of which is still perfectly edible. As well as contributing to greenhouse gases, Bidfood said “there’s an obvious need for redistribution of this unwanted food” given than 8.4m people in the UK are struggling to afford to eat.
Lindsay Boswell, FareShare chief executive, added: “Bidfood has been providing surplus food to FareShare for almost two years.
“In the last year alone, the company provided 40,000 meals, which were redistributed to people in need via our nationwide network of 10,000 charities and community groups.
“Bidfood’s latest initiative is evidence of its commitment to supporting FareShare’s mission of ensuring all quality, surplus food is diverted to those who need it most.
“Community cooks across our network of charities work tirelessly to make that vision a reality, so the opportunity for Bidfood’s chefs to share their knowledge and ideas with them was really valued.”