Adam Smith

Speaker Adam Smith is the CEO of Surplus To Purpose – SToP, a revolutionary catering enterprise. Surplus to Purpose utilises food destined for waste, by safely redistributing this through cooked meals, products and by provision to families. It focuses on the environmental issues of food waste measuring its impact on climate change within the food industry. For the whole academic year of 2022/23, SToP in association with Thomas Franks diverted nearly 16 tons of surplus food on to children’s plates – providing nutritionally dense, quality meals made from what otherwise would have been wasted! They have dozens of schools lined up nationally to start receiving this food through this collaboration, feeding thousands of children. Overall, Surplus to Purpose diverted 322 tons of food in 2022 – equivalent to 767,000 meals and then went on to divert 506 tons of food in 2023 that’s the equivalent of over a million meals!

Adam Smith also founded the visionary, multi-award-winning, global initiative: The Real Junk Food Project (TRJFP). Set up in December 2013, to revolutionise the disposal of avoidable food waste into landfill, the pioneering movement’s manifesto is ‘feed bellies, not bins’.

A professional chef for more than a decade, Adam has held a wealth of head chef positions, internationally. Whilst working in Australia, he witnessed the scale of food waste, agriculturally and within the catering industry. Upon his return to the UK, he was inspired to set up TRJFP.

Adam has received numerous plaudits and awards from organisations ranging from NESTA to The Observer. He was voted one of the forty most influential men in the world by AskMen. In addition The Telegraph voted Adam as one of the 50th most influential people in UK Food & Drink – the Food & Drink Power List. Adam was honoured with an Unsung Hero award presented by the Canal & River Trust in 2022, celebrates those who have made a positive impact in their community.

His alias is Mr Junk Food Chef and he has been a featured speaker on a truly memorable TedX talk. Adam’s story is genuinely inspiring.

Adam Smith’s presentation themes include:

• Sustainability, environment and waste management
• Overcoming adversity & mental health
• Leadership, teamwork and motivation
• Change and change management
• Corporate social responsibility
• Project management

“Thank you again for a truly motivational session. We have had such amazing feedback from so many team members already. Your honesty and vulnerability were inspiring and your story so very powerful” Kate Perrin, Marketing Director, Barbour ABI online conference presentation

Adam Smith is presented in partnership with The Right Address.