Free pumpkin-inspired community feast to take place in Market Harborough this week

People are being invited to a free pumpkin-inspired community feast in Market Harborough.

The Village – formerly the Eco Village – in St Mary’s Road is hosting the food sharing event in a bid to encourage people to eat their pumpkins and reduce the number which end up in the bin.

It will take place on Thursday (October 26) between 5.30pm and 8pm. Residents are invited to bring along pumpkin-based treats to share and enjoy tasters of other pumpkin foods.

There will also be live music and crafts for children.

Beth Lambert from The Village said: “By sharing recipes and holding this free community feast, we really hope to inspire local residents to eat their pumpkins this year and help make this delicious food go further. You can get an average of six meals out of a pumpkin and they make a great addition to a soup or curry and taste fantastic with a wide range of flavours including ginger, chilli and sage.

“Reducing food waste and helping to alleviate food poverty by holding free events such as these and through our Community Fridge is massively important to us.”

The event is being held following research from environmental charity Hubbub which revealed across the country some 30 million pumpkins are expected to be bought for carving, of which 16 million won’t be eaten. It is the equivalent of 95 million meals-worth of pumpkins set to go to waste, worth £26.7 million.

Hubbub senior creative partner Mark Breen said: “For ten years we’ve been inspiring the public to eat their pumpkins at Halloween.

“This year we’re sharing fun ideas to decorate pumpkins instead of carving them, to help them keep for longer and give people more time to cook them. If everyone cooked and ate their Halloween pumpkins, they’d be saving a combined £26.7 million worth of edible food from going to waste.”

The charity says pumpkins can be decorated with edible inks to make them last longer than if they were carved. It also says almost every part of the vegetable can be eaten, except the stalk.

Visit www.hubbub.org.uk/eat-your-pumpkin for more information.