Rida Hisan, age 16 from the Eat of the Good Things project talks about taking part in her first ever publicity stunt!

Publicity stunt? Seems fun, shouldn't be that hard.  That was my first thought. I guess I can be forgiven seeing as I've never been to, seen or taken part in one. So on Sunday, the 'Eat of the Good Things' gang met up in the London Muslim Centre. At midday we were all ready. The placards were ready and looked wonderful. The film crew were ready and our superheroes, Batman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Superman (woman in fact) and the cowboy were ready and looked pretty amazing too. The feminist in me was angry as there was no female superhero but I tamed that side by telling myself  that you can't solve all the problems of the world, so just start by solving one. We hit the streets to raise awareness about the tragic impact of food waste on food insecurity and food injustice.

It was quite weird having everyone's eyes on you but that is the whole point of a publicity stunt.  The place where we did the stunt wasn't far from the London Muslim Centre. All we had to do was tell the public about our work. I have never been so ignored in my life! I mean you had the people who were genuinely busy and they excused themselves agreeably but there were people who just walked away like I was invisable. Then there was people who just stared at you and then walked away. I don't know which one was worse.  I was very close to saying 'sod this' until an old couple walked our way. They listened to what we had to say, took a leaflet and told us to keep up the good work. This was the basic pattern of the day.

There would be many people ignoring us,  taking our leaflets only because we managed to shove it in their hands and just when were close to give up, someone or a group of people would come our way and would believe in what we were doing. This is all we needed to carry on. There was whole variety of people there, the homeless however had the most to say, which is understandable as I don't think they get a chance to voice their thoughts often. I counted my blessings and made a mental note that I had a lot of thanking to do that night.  However after a while, more and more people seemed interested. I smiled, we were getting better at selling ourselves. The highlight of the day was when a man in a pink shirt came to one of the girls and asked her for a hug, she pointed to the Teenage mutant ninja turtle so he went and hugged him and gave him a peck! Such a shame that even though we were surrounded my cameras, no one took a picture of it. Oh well that memory will stay imprinted in our heads.

After we had finished our publicity stunt, MADE in Europe's Campaign Manager Oussama kindly treated us all to a late lunch in the 'Black Stone' and we had lamb with rice which was absolutely delicious. On my way home, as I was reflecting about today, I realised that it didn't matter that some people ignored us because we weren't doing it for them. Yes, our confidence was compromised a little at the beginning and my feelings were hurt but we weren't doing it for ourselves either. We were doing it for those who needed us, and even though many of those who did believe in us didn't know our names , it was nice to know that at least one person that day was going to do something different that would make all our efforts worthwhile.