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Charles visited one of the new hubs in south London, which is hosting a “surplus food festival” where meals will be made from food that would otherwise be thrown away.
He was due to open a second Coronation Food Hub in Merseyside, North West England, in a virtual ceremony.
During the visit, the King was joined by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, on a tour of the new facility before meeting beneficiaries and representatives from food banks, schools and community groups.
As well as investing in a network of hubs, the King’s Coronation Food Project is also adding warehouse capacity, strengthening cold storage and funding transport and drivers to increase distribution capacity.
To date, £15m ($29.4m) has been raised to design, build and run a network of up to 10 hubs across the UK.
Since it was launched, the food project has worked with local charities FareShare and the Felix Project and has saved 853 tonnes of surplus food – the equivalent of 2.2 million meals. He also gave £715,000 ($1.4 million) in food donations to 33 UK organisations.
Buckingham Palace also released a new photo of the king to mark his big day.
In the snap shared on the royal family’s official X account, the monarch smiles for the camera in a crisp blue suit, white shirt and patterned blue tie with a pocket square.
The title of the post reads: “Today I wish His Majesty the King a happy birthday”.
The Prince and Princess of Wales also expressed their best wishes in a social media post, writing: “Happy birthday to His Majesty The King!”
The message was accompanied by a photo of Charles taken during his recent overseas tour of Samoa on his first visit as head of the Commonwealth.
The traditional military celebration of the sovereign’s birthday means that a 41-gun royal salute is fired in Green Park by the Royal Horse Artillery and at the Tower of London by the Honorable Artillery Company.
Meanwhile, the bells of Westminster Abbey rang out at 1pm (midnight AEDT).
King Charles treats his actual birthday in November as a normal weekday, but the bonus of being a monarch means he actually gets two.
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The tradition is believed to have started with the party-crazy King George II. in 1748. He, like Charles, was born in November when British weather is often far from ideal.
The sovereign’s “official” birthday takes place during the warmer summer months when the Trooping the Color military spectacle follows 1,400 officers and men marching through the streets of London from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guards Parade, as crowds gather along the route.
Trooping the Color previously existed as a standalone event, but was officially and permanently repurposed as a birthday celebration after George III became king in 1760.
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