Cirque de Surplus

Cirque de Surplus is an interactive, performance based vehicle to raise awareness of food waste in the supply chain. They follow three guiding values: environmental justice, social justice and active citizenship. Their work operates in two key areas; campaigning for supply chain policy change, and an outreach education programme.

The Fund awarded Cirque de Surplus a grant for their project, 'This is Rubbish', which involved participatory performances across north London. The goal was to raise awareness for the impact of food waste and its prevention. Each set of activities took place in a public place and performers engaged the audience with food waste reduction, for example through public pledges to reduce waste or through sharing tips and knowledge. 

Through performances in each of our seven north London boroughs, over 2,500 residents engaged with the diverse and entertaining activities. The performances encouraged 333 residents to make public pledges on their aims to fight food waste. At the performances alone, 2 tonnes of food was diverted from landfill with an estimated 5.5. more being indirectly diverted due to the work the team put in. 

Please see their website for more details.