A working birthday for His Majesty! King Charles celebrates turning 76 by opening two Coronation meals hubs – as Buckingham Palace releases candy tribute

King Charles III celebrated turning 76 today by opening the first of his two new Coronation Food Hubs as the Royal Family wished him a happy birthday.

The monarch headed to Deptford in South London to formally unveil the first hub, tour the centre with London Mayor Sadiq Khan and attend a surplus food festival.

Today is the first anniversary of the launch of his Coronation Food Project which aims to bridge the gap between food need and food waste amid the cost-of-living crisis.

The King’s engagement was a solo one – with Queen Camilla, who had hoped to join him, still recovering from a nasty chest infection. He will later virtually a second hub in Knowsley, Merseyside – with three more hubs due open in the year ahead.

Earlier in the day, the monarchy’s social media accounts posted a birthday message with a formal portrait of Charles in the White Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace.

Prince William and Kate’s account shared an image of the relaxed-looking monarch wearing sunglasses and a garland during his royal tour to Samoa last month.

The photograph was taken as he opened The King’s Garden at a museum in Apia, and the message read: ‘Wishing a very Happy Birthday to His Majesty The King!’

And Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also tweeted a message, saying: ‘Sending His Majesty The King my very best wishes on his birthday today. Many happy returns.’

But MailOnline understands there will be no public birthday message to the King from his son Prince Harry and daughter-in-law Meghan Markle today, given that the Sussexes now keep such birthday wishes private outside of milestone years.

Charles is treating his birthday as a normal working day and carrying on with his duties despite facing a personally challenging year in which both he and daughter-in-law Kate were diagnosed with cancer. 

Gun salutes will be fired in Green Park by The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery and at the Tower of London by the Honourable Artillery Company today as part of the military’s traditional celebrations on the sovereign’s birthday.

Also today, bells will be rung at Westminster Abbey where the King was crowned in 2023.

Yesterday, the King walked the red carpet in black tie on the eve of his birthday, meeting stars Denzel Washington, Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal at the glitzy global premiere of Gladiator II.

In the afternoon, he also hosted a special celebrity reception at Buckingham Palace in honour of the UK’s film and television industry.

He and Camilla, who attended for part of the event, chatted with a host of famous faces including actors Damian Lewis, Emily Mortimer and Lucien Laviscount, and Gladiator director Sir Ridley Scott.

Charles, like his late mother Elizabeth II, has two birthdays, his actual one on November 14, and his official one, which falls on the second Saturday in June.

Since 1748, the monarch’s official birthday has been marked by the parade known as Trooping the Colour, which was usually held on the king or queen’s actual birthday.

Edward VII, who reigned from 1901 to 1910, was born in the month of November.

But he celebrated officially in May or June because there was less chance of it being cold and drizzly during the outdoor event.

Charles’s grandfather George VI, who was born in December, reintroduced the idea, and the late Queen Elizabeth II continued it, as has the King.

Prince Charles Philip Arthur George was welcomed into the world on November 14, 1948 at Buckingham Palace, the first child of the future Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

As the Prince of Wales, he was the nation’s longest serving heir to the throne, and he became King on September 8, 2022 on the death of his mother.

News of Charles’s cancer, undisclosed in its form, came in February, after it was discovered while he was treated in hospital for an enlarged prostate in January.

He cancelled all face-to-face public duties but returned in April and has since travelled to France for D-Day commemorations, hosted an incoming state visit for the Emperor of Japan, and undertaken a recent hectic tour to Australia and Samoa with the Queen, despite still undergoing outpatient cancer treatment.

It comes as an impact report marking the first anniversary of the King’s Coronation Food Project said it had saved 940 tonnes of surplus food – the equivalent of more than two million meals.

Charles launched the drive a year ago and since then more than £15million has been raised to design, build and run a future network of up to 10 Coronation Food Hubs across the UK.

The project aims to bridge the gap between food waste and food need across the UK, by saving more surplus food, supercharging food distribution networks and delivering a flexible funding programme to support the wider sector.

The initiative, which partners with The Felix Project and FareShare, has made ‘significant and tangible progress towards achieving’ its goals, the report said.

As well as saving 940 tonnes of surplus food in its first year – equivalent to 2.24 million meal portions, a further 1,900 tonnes – or 4.5 million meals – have also been donated by partners of the project.

Meanwhile, £715,000 has been awarded by the King Charles III Charitable Fund (KCCF) to 33 charities working in some of the most deprived parts of the country, with the grants set to enable the rescue of 640 tonnes of food waste, feeding 95,000 people.

A large grant to the Trussell Trust has provided support to its network of more than 1,300 food banks throughout the UK, which last year distributed more than 3.1 million emergency food parcels – the highest number in its history.

In November last year, major supermarkets and food manufacturers signed a pledge to support the project.

Developments include M&S and the 2 Sisters Food Group launching an initiative creating one million ready meals such as vegetable curry and family-sized pizzas from surplus ingredients through a unique supplier club, while Asda and Morrisons have focused on produce recovery within their supply chains.

An estimated 25 per cent of all food in the UK is wasted, the report said.