Gurvinder Sidhu of the FareShare charity, writes about the need to tackle food surplus.
FareShare, which provides over 13.2 million meals a year for people in need from surplus food, welcomes a new report (to be published on Monday 8th December) looking at a fairer food surplus system to tackle poverty and hunger nationwide.
By redistributing over 5,500 tonnes of surplus food a year through its 20 Regional Centres, FareShare helps to feed over 82,000 people a day across the country. This surplus food is redistributed to 1,711 local charities and community organisations supporting vulnerable people and children such as breakfast clubs, lunch clubs, homeless hostels, women’s refuges and drop-in centres, saving UK charity sector over £16 million a year. However the charity is only redistributing 1.5% of the available in date and edible surplus food in the UK.
FareShare estimates that there is actually up to 400,000 tonnes of available surplus food that could be used for people in need. Surplus food that could be delivered to FareShare’s Regional Centres in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that could support more local charities and projects to help people facing hunger and poverty. The number of charities receiving surplus food from FareShare has increased by 32% in the last six months alone.
The charity welcomes calls to increase investment into charities who, like FareShare, manage food redistribution and support for the food industry to ensure more equal distribution of surplus food that can complement existing green solutions such as Anaerobic Digestion.
Good food should always feed people first and FareShare strongly believes that, in order to address the issue of hunger in the UK, a food redistribution system needs to be built that is sustainable and robust. The charity has 20 years experience of using a model that redistributes large volumes of surplus food nationally to scale which has attracted support from the UK food industry for 20 years. FareShare’s work complements food banks but the charity aims to work with other organisations that provide not just meals but also long term and vital support services, such as treatment for addiction or employability training, to target the underlying and wider causes of why people struggle to feed themselves.
The UK food industry is one of the most efficient and progressive in the world but the majority of surplus food actually happens when food is manufactured, rather than at store level. FareShare is accessing surplus food directly from manufacturers (like Gerber, Kellogg’s and Nestlé UK) and through retailers (like Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco).
The above mentioned companies and other food partners are leading the way by example and have recognised the environmental, social and economic benefits of diverting surplus food to FareShare to enable the charity to provide meals for people in need.
