King Charles III celebrates 75th birthday today

London, Nov 14 (IANS) The UK's King Charles III will mark his 75th birthday on Tuesday with the launch of the Coronation Food Project, which seeks to bridge the gap between food waste and food need across the the nation.

Besides launching the project, the monarch will also host a reception for 400 NHS nurses and midwives at the Buckingham Palace, while ceremonial gun salutes will mark the day, including at the Tower of London, reports the BBC.

Highlighting the Coronation Food Project in an article in the Big Issue magazine, the King said: "Food need is as real and urgent a problem as food waste."

He told the magazine that "cost-of-living pressures" were resulting in "too many families and individuals missing out on nutritious meals".

The project aims to create distribution hubs to connect surplus food with what it says are 14 million people facing food insecurity.

An animation promoting the project will be shown on Tuesday evening on the digital advertising hoardings at Piccadilly Circus in London.

When the King was born on November 14, 1948, there was still food rationing in post-war Britain.

On Monday, the monarch had joined a special tea party at the Highgrove Garden for individuals and organisations who also turned or were turning 75 this year.

"The event brought people together to celebrate their 75th birthdays and recognise their contributions to the community," the UK Royal House said in a post on X.

"The celebration also marked other 75th anniversaries taking place this year, including Windrush 75 and the NHS’s 75th anniversary."

At the age of 75, King Charles is now the sixth longest-lived British monarch, behind Elizabeth II, Victoria, George III, Edward VIII and George II.