Yesterday saw the very successful press launch of re-plenish, the food bank charity set up in Oxford. I was proud to be part of it and witness the brand and website, created by MTD, unveiled. Last night and today we have already seen extensive TV and press coverage.

The re-plenish charity is operating an Oxford food bank, which takes unsold food from local supermarkets and suppliers and redistributes it to existing community food projects. Following a pilot phase the project is now up and running in and around Oxford taking surplus and ‘at sell by date’ food from local Sainsbury’s and Co-Operative supermarkets. This simple system provides healthy, wholesome food to people who need it and reduces the amount of unsold food that ends up in landfill. Currently approximately 20 million tonnes of food waste goes into landfill every year!

MTD got involved with this project about 18 months ago when we met Steve Moralee, the Chair of Trustees. We shared his belief, vision and infectious passion for this cause and quickly realised that our marketing expertise could help. You can read more about it in our latest news.

We have been overwhelmed by the dedication and effort that those involved have shown to get to this point, all volunteers, often holding down full time jobs. They are all to be congratulated for making this real and I hope that everyone that can, finds a way to get involved. After all, it affects every one of us.

On this day that has been gripped by the passing of two stars, namely Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett, we are surrounded by a media explosion, mass public reaction – not to mention of course the loss that two families have to cope with.

But what we have to do is put all of this in perspective. Get a grip and learn from this – as so eloquently put in an e-newsletter today from the leading catering and hospitality publication, and I quote:-

“I’m starting with the man in the mirror; I’m asking him to change his ways; And no message could have been any clearer; If you wanna make the world a better place; Take a look at yourself and then make a change. As the world digests the passing of Michael Jackson, the restaurant industry is also being asked to look inwardly and make a change on the controversial issue of service charge…….” News Editor, 26 June 2009.

Phew..er, a joke, surely? Afraid not.

So, after the devastating Italian earthquake, did they make comparisons to the downfall in popularity of Italian restaurants and the need to up their game?

What utter guff.

The recent news item regarding the construction of a new dining table in the International Space Station raises some interesting points about the importance of human emotions and rituals, regardless of technological advances and it would appear – cost.

New dinner table top priority as ISS expands

“We are now going to have six people in orbit, so we will need to engineer another table, so we can all eat and chat together,” Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko said. Lunch is a ritual process in orbit,” he told journalists.

The average cost of lifting a kilogramme of anything to low earth orbit, typically where space stations and space shuttles spend their time aloft, is in the order of $100,000. Compared to this, the actual cost of food is negligible, in theory Astronauts should live on a diet of truffles and vintage champagne….and yet they crave simple foods that remind them of home, hash browns, m&m’s. They also place high levels of importance on how they eat…sharing meals together.

If we ever needed a reminder of how important such lowly matters as food and human contact are, this is a good reminder.

Brings a whole new meaning to the idea of food miles…