Global Sharing Day, June 2nd, arrives in less than a month. The People Who Share, the hosting organization for this celebration for global sharing, held a launch event to illuminate their food and mealsharing initiatives at the House of Commons this past Friday.
MP Caroline Lucas of Brighton and Hove hosted the event. She believes deeply in the cause of food and mealsharing as part of a more sustainable Britain. Lucas spoke admiringly of food and mealsharers, whom she believes help their communities by combatting hunger and excess food waste.
Also in attendance was Jay Savsani of the Chicago-based Mealsharing, a platform for finding mealsharers across the world. Mealsharing is simple; create a profile on the Mealsharing site, accept invites, cook, and enjoy a meal with people from your neighborhood or travelers exploring your city for the very first time.
Shaun Butler, advisor to Prime Minister David Cameron, Peter Stewart of the Eden Project and Big Lunch, Joey Tabone of Start, Business in the Community, Chris Mould, chairman of the Trussell Trust, Lindsey Boswell of FareShare, Andy Dawe of WRAP, and Matt Skinner of FutureGov and Casserole also spoke.
Mealsharing is developing a strong following across North America and Western Europe, and hopes to expand ever farther into new communities and regions of the globe. The launch event also spotlighted Global Sharing Day’s mission, to break a world record for sharing food.
Across much of the world, food is thrown out for, oftentimes, superficial packaging discrepancies or inaccurate sell-by date printing. This places an enormous burden on landfills and garbage dumps, while also adding insult to the billions across the world stuck in the cycles of famine and malnourishment.
Casserole, a London-based social enterprise, allows members to share food with neighbors, with an emphasis on the elderly. When a Casserole Club member cooks some food, they make some extra for a neighbor in need of a meal and some company.
Thanks to this event at the House of Commons, three trolleyloads of food was donated to the Westminster Food Bank by the over 160 attendees. This event hopes to inspire people from across the world to be more active in their foodsharing and to seek out avenues through which they can share more with their neighbors and friends.
Global Sharing Day will only be successful if people are willing to respond to the call. Foodsharers, mealsharers, carsharers and all sharers do wonderful things for their community and the Sharing Economy in general. The greater number of sharers, the more sustainable a future we can promise to the next generations.
As resources get scarcer and scarcer, sharing becomes the only option to maintain vibrant communities. Economic globalization cast a wider net in which to bring in resources and commodities. What was forgotten was the innateness of human kindness and the transformative powers of sharing. Simply put, there are no problems that cannot be met by sharing time, knowledge, meals, advice, and ourselves with our neighbors, friends, family, and complete strangers. From sharing, comes hope. From hope, comes change. And from change, a world in which we are proud to live in is created.