Humans waste a third of all the food we grow and leave nearly a billion people underfed. Bonobos, or pygmy chimpanzees, are humans’ closest animal relative: most famous for their promiscuous sex-lives and matriarchal social structure. They are less well known for their pro-social food-sharing behaviour.

When bonobos have a surplus food they proactively find others to share it with, and they select strangers in preference over friends. Essentially they turn surplus food into social capital and make new friends. Think of all the friends we humans could make with the 1.3 billion tonnes of food we waste each year!

The Bonobo Feast is an opportunity for people to share a mass free feast all made from ingredients that would otherwise be wasted, connecting physically with other fellow festival-goers, and gives us a deepened sense of the possibilities for creating communities worldwide. This is an example of how we can help build global communities taking responsibility for each other and the world.

FareShare South West, the region’s largest surplus food redistribution charity, will be providing fresh surplus fruit and veg saved from the food industry for the feast. The charity supports local front line charities, school Breakfast Clubs and community groups with weekly food deliveries- all good, in date food that would have otherwise gone to waste.