Asda to give surplus food to charity

Unveiled yesterday (June 2), the initiative will see Asda give surplus meals from its supply chain to food redistribution charity FareShare, which will then send the food to charitable causes.

According to Asda, the scheme will increase the amount of food redistributed by FareShare by 41%, which is the equivalent of an extra 3.6 million meals each year. It will also save the 910 charities supported by FareShare as much as 4.5 million a year.

The supermarket chain said its suppliers often sent more food stock than expected, but that sending these overs back to the suppliers cost time and money, while the food would often be out of date by the time it reached its destination.

Instead, Asda said it would now be giving these overs directly to FareShare for redistribution to charitable causes, such as helping homeless people and providing a refuge victims of domestic violence.

Barry Williams, Asdas chief merchandising officer for food, said: Food poverty is a very real problem and its getting worse, not better. Through our new supply chain model and work with FareShare, Im proud that were able to help feed millions of families around the UK who would otherwise go hungry.

FareShare

Asda is the latest in a number of UK food retailers to have announced plans to work with FareShare to tackle food waste recently, including Tesco (see letsrecycle.com story) and The Co-operative Group (see letsrecycle.com story).

Lindsay Boswell, FareShare chief executive, said: We know that there are more people turning to charities for food than at any other time in FareShares history. This initiative will mean we can provide more food to more charities and will enable us to feed even more people at a time of real need.

The news comes ahead of an international nutrition summit to be hosted by the UK government in London next week (June 8) as part of its G8 presidency.

Last month (May 8) it was also announced that Asda had signed up to the third voluntary Courtauld Commitment, which is run by the Waste and Resources Action Plan (WRAP) and sets targets to prevent food waste, grocery supply chain waste and packaging waste (see letsrecycle.com story).