Let's Cook Disco Soup in New Taipei City! Food-Saving Sharing Festival cooks soup together to deliver love

On the 22nd, the New Taipei City Government held a unique wedding banquet at the Huiyao Pesticide-Free Vegetable Garden in Tucheng District. Witnessed by Lee Wen, Director of the Agriculture Department, "imperfect fruits and vegetables" and "food-saving sharing restaurants" were joined in marriage, symbolizing that the food and beverage industry accepts and uses imperfect fruits and vegetables, and putting into practice the spirit of not wasting ingredients. At the same time, "one-day chefs" were called on to take part in the "Christmas Food-Saving Sharing Festival" on December 23 and 24, cooking soup together to spread warmth.

Reducing food waste is an important global issue. New Taipei City promotes the "Food-Saving Sharing Network" program, bringing together the strength of city government agencies and the private sector to solve the problems of waste at the source and surplus food in a systematic way. At the source end, the "food-saving sharing restaurants" program matches food and beverage businesses with organic and eco-friendly-grade imperfect fruits and vegetables, rescuing good ingredients that might otherwise be wasted during production and distribution. At present, 32 food and beverage businesses in Taipei and New Taipei City have responded, and together with the amount donated with love by the fruit and vegetable company for elderly communal meals, about 700 metric tons of imperfect fruits and vegetables have so far been matched and distributed. On the other hand, the "clean plate campaign" promoted on New Taipei campuses encourages all students to finish their school lunches, cultivating from childhood the habit of taking only as much food as needed and leaving no leftovers. Over the course of a year, this can reduce about 383 tons of food waste. To improve the situation in which Chinese people's banquets often leave a large amount of food waste, it also actively promotes "ordering only as much as needed before the meal and packing up food to save it after the meal." This can reduce restaurant food waste by nearly 60% and ease the burden on the environment.

Lee Wen, Director of the Agriculture Department, said that for the food-saving movement to continue, it depends on every citizen being able to embody the spirit of saving food. From 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on December 23 and 24, the 3rd "Christmas Food-Saving Sharing Festival" will be held at the plaza in front of Banqiao Station. This year, 4 major themes will link the exhibition areas to share food-saving actions that can be carried out in daily life. "Preserved Food," "Friendly Food," "Foraged Food," and "Abundant Food" are the highlights, while the main event "Disco Soup Swinging Soup" uses Let's Cook Disco Soup as its call, inviting "one-day chefs" from all over the country to take part in cooking swinging soup together and give it out to friends who come to New Taipei City for Christmas as well as to elderly communal meals and charity groups, so that this warmth of saving food continues to be passed on.