King Charles marks 76th birthday at 'surplus food festival' and releases new portrait

King Charles III has marked his 76th birthday overnight by opening two food distribution hubs, as part of his Coronation Food Project that he launched a year ago in the hopes of bridging the gap between food poverty and food waste.

His Majesty visited one of the new hubs in south London on Thursday, which is hosting a "surplus food festival" where meals will be made using food that might otherwise have gone to waste.

He also opened the second Coronation Food Hub in Merseyside in northwest England, in a virtual ceremony.

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During the visit, the King was joined by London Mayor Sadiq Khan to tour the new facility before meeting beneficiaries and representatives of food banks, schools and community groups.

In addition to investing in a network of hubs, the King's Coronation Food Project is also adding capacity to warehouses, boosting cold storage facilities and funding transport and drivers to bolster distribution capacity.

To date, £15 million ($29.4 million) has been raised to design, build and run a network of up to 10 hubs across the United Kingdom.

Since it was launched, the food project has worked with local charities FareShare and the Felix Project, and saved 853 tonnes of surplus food - the equivalent of 2.2 million meals. It has also given £715,000 ($1.4 million) in community food grants to 33 UK organisations.

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The King was seen beaming as he met with members of the charitable organisations as well as some of the people that benefit from the hubs, which include school children.

It comes after a year of ups and downs for the monarch, who was diagnosed with an undisclosed cancer in February.

After taking a few months to begin his treatment, which remains on-going, he returned to public facing duties in May.

Buckingham Palace also released a new photograph of the King in honour of his big day.

In the snap shared on the Royal Family's official X account, the monarch is smiling at the camera in a sharp blue suit, white shirt and blue patterned tie and pocket square.

The caption alongside the post reads, "Wishing His Majesty The King a very Happy Birthday today".

The Prince and Princess of Wales also offered their best wishes in a post on social media.

"Wishing a very Happy Birthday to His Majesty The King!" they captioned the post.

The message was accompanied by a photograph of King Charles taken during his recent overseas tour to Samoa on his first visit as head of the Commonwealth.

The military's traditional celebrations for the sovereign's birthday means that 41-gun royal salute was fired in Green Park by The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery and at the Tower of London by the Honourable Artillery Company.

Meanwhile, the bells of Westminster Abbey were rung at 1pm (midnight AEDT).

King Charles treats his actual birthday in November like a normal working day, but the bonus of being the monarch means that he actually gets two.

The tradition is believed to have started with the party-mad King George II in 1748. He was, like Charles, was born in November when British weather is often far from ideal.

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Kate's public return as royals unite at Trooping the Colour

The sovereign's "official" birthday is held during the warmer summer months when the Trooping the Colour military spectacles sees 1400 officers and soldiers process through the streets of London from Buckingham Palace to Horse Guard's Parade, while crowds line the route.

Trooping the Colour had previously existed as a standalone event but was officially and permanently re-purposed as a birthday celebration after George III became King in 1760.

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