Tesco’s Beverley store is working with local charities and community groups who have registered for an exciting new scheme which will see unsold food become meals for vulnerable people across the town.
Local groups set to benefit from the scheme include the Cherry Tree Community Centre and the East Yorkshire Foodbank.
Recent studies showed that the UK households were the worst in EU for food waste discarding over 22m tonnes, most of which is avoidable. Middle class over-ordering and strict sell-by dates are to blame with studies showing that less income people have the less food they throw away.
Figures released by Tesco show the company threw away 55,400 tonnes of food from their stores and distribution centres, the equivalent of 100K meals.
As part of its ongoing pledge to cut food waste, Tesco’s Community Food Connection programme with FareShare FoodCloud recruits and supports charities and community groups, linking them to Tesco stores via an innovative app that allows store teams to alert them to surplus unsold food items available at the end of each day.
The unsold food is free and includes fresh produce, such as fruit, vegetables and bakery products. Chilled products like meat, dairy and ready meals are also offered.
There have been 275,000 meals donated to people in need via Community Food Connection to date, following a successful pilot in 14 stores last year and a national rollout from March this year, that has seen 712 charities sign up to the scheme so far.
FareShare FoodCloud is the result of a unique three-way partnership bringing the charity, social enterprise and commercial sectors together. FareShare brings its knowledge of the UK charity food redistribution market and its experience of providing food.
FoodCloud brings its knowledge of the technology and online applications needed to connect businesses with surplus food. Tesco brings the people and technology required to deliver a reliable and well-managed programme, and is the first retailer to invest in, and roll out, FareShare FoodCloud.
Rachel Finn, Head of Community Food Programmes at Tesco said:
“No food that can be eaten should go to waste. We’re really excited to start working on this initiative to ensure that any unsold food we have is made use of. We are looking forward to forging strong links with local charities and community groups in Beverley, and to use this initiative to support their efforts to help vulnerable people in our community.”
FareShare FoodCloud is the latest step in Tesco’s work with FareShare on the provision of surplus food. The partnership spans over three years and includes activities which make food available from the Tesco supply chain, distribution centres and dotcom centres.
This has seen nine million meals made up of surplus food donated to over 2,200 charities and community groups across the UK.
