The pumpkins are coming again – and we want to get everyone involved! It's been a hot summer and the pumpkin harvest is looking abundant, but did you know that 18,000 tonnnes of pumpkin go to waste in the UK every year? That's why we raise awareness of pumpkin waste and food waste in general using the annual motto Carve it, Cook it, Eat it – Don’t bin it! and the hashtag #PumpkinRescue.  The sixth Oxford Pumpkin Festival is equally a celebration of our amazing local pumpkin growers such as Sandy Lane Farm and Oxford City Farm who are running harvest festivals and pumpkin sales as part of the festival.

To make all of this happen, we need your support:

1. Contribute to our fundraiser: We are raising £400 to give out micro-grants to local community groups from the Good Food network so they can organise events around pumpkins and food waste reduction. Donate now 2. Get involved with an event or a pumpkin-themed menu and we'll help you promote it. Get in touch 3. Submit your best pumpkin recipe for us to print on a festival recipe card and publish on our pumpkin recipe page. Get in touch 4. Volunteer for one of the many groups running events as part of the festival or support the GFO team with publicity and social media for the festival. Get in touch The programme includes the popular Disco Soup – a big food surplus cookup in Bonn Square in the centre of Oxford – and we give out recipe cards to give everyone delicious ideas for what to do with carved-out pumpkin flesh or whole squashes and pumpkins. Whatever bits of food must go in the bin – we encourage everyone to compost them or put them in the right bin. To find out what happens to it from there, join a free tour to the food waste recycling plant in Cassington organised by Oxfordshire Recycles. We are going to fill up the schedule with more events in the coming weeks. So stay tuned and get in touch now with your pledges! https://goodfoodoxford.org/oxford-pumpkin-festival/