In this episode I'm speaking to Cristina Reni from Food for Soul - an organisation based in Italy, set up by the chef Massimo Bottura, who runs the number one restaurant in the world.

The organisation aims to encourage public and private organisations to create community kitchens around the world, and was created after Massimo was involved in setting up a soup kitchen in an abandoned theatre during the Expo 2015 in Milan, feeding vulnerable members of the community using food left over from the Expo each day, rescuing it from going to waste. He was involved with a similar initiative at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Thanks to the work of Food for Soul, these soup kitchens - or refettorios - are still up and running, and it's recently been announced that they will be opening a refettorio in London this June, during London Food Month.

I spoke to Cristina, who is a project manager at Food for Soul about how the organisation functions, the impact it’s having, and much more.

Just a say that this was the first time I had carried out an interview via Skype, and I was also starting to come down with a cold, so I'm not the most dynamic in this interview unfortunately, but Cristina more than makes up for that with her passion and enthusiasm for the great work that Food for Soul is doing.

If you would like to learn more about the work Food for Soul is doing, visit their website at - http://foodforsoul.it

If you would like to learn more about the issue of food waste and the work being done by organisations like Food for Soul, then be sure to visit the Food Is Wasted website at http://foodiswasted.com - and sign up for the newsletter if you would like to be kept informed of new articles, interviews and initiatives.

If you’re involved with a food waste relate initiative, and would like to be featured on the site or podcast, please get in touch with me via email at chris@foodiswasted.com