UK Could Be Losing Out On 800m Meals From 'Hidden Food' Which Could Help 5.8m People In 'Deep Poverty'
Charity
already provides over 12m meals a year from this 'hidden food' to tackle food
hunger
The UK could
be losing out on 800m meals from 'hidden food' which could help 5.8m people
living in 'deep poverty', according to food redistribution charity FareShare.
The charity already provides over 12m meals from this 'hidden food' source to
tackle food hunger.
FareShare
which celebrates its' 10th anniversary as an independent organisation this
year, tackles food poverty through redistributing food surplus (within the food
and drink industry) to charities. It
estimates that up to 400,000 tonnes of this food surplus is edible and in date
and could provide 800m meals; equivalent to 13 meals per person in the UK.
Lindsay
Boswell, CEO of FareShare said:
“FareShare has been working with leading supermarkets and suppliers for
over 20 years to rescue good food from going to waste and redirect it to people
in need across the UK. Over the past
decade we have redistributed enough surplus to provide over 67m meals. This is a great milestone to reach in our
10th anniversary and we are only using 1.5 per cent of surplus food. However this is just the tip of the iceberg
of what is potentially available and we could be providing so much more from
this source.
“We have
built a sustainable and successful model to tackle food hunger through food
waste, which all started thanks to our original founders Crisis and
Sainsbury's. Without their input we
wouldn't be here today helping feed 62,200 people daily and I look forward to
building on this success for the future.”
The original
FareShare was established in 1994 by homelessness charity Crisis and
Sainsbury's from a similar model in America which put surplus food to good
use. They looked into setting up the
first FareShare model in London that year.
Crisis expanded FareShare from 1994 to 2004 and Sainsbury's became one
of FareShare's major food partners.
FareShare then became an independent organisation in 2004 to expand and
now has 18 regional centres across the UK with more branches opening later this
year.
Leslie
Morphy, chief executive of Crisis said:
“FareShare's continued success is a real source of pride for us here at
Crisis and a testament to the dedication of its staff. We established FareShare 20 years ago as a
way to get surplus food to people who need it most and it has remained true to
its founding mission, thriving as a charity in its own right. Sadly, its work
is now more important than ever.”
Sainsbury's
Head of Sustainability, Energy and Environment Paul Crewe said: “We're delighted to celebrate FareShare's
10th anniversary with them as a founding partner. I've watched the charity go from strength to
strength and hope their important work continues for many years to come.”
Since
becoming an independent organisation in 2004, FareShare has seen huge growth in
the following areas:
FareShare's
growing reach in food poverty in the UK; the number of meals provided by
FareShare has increased by more than 300% over 10 years. (1)
FareShare's
rapid growth; the number of charities becoming FareShare members have increased
by more than 400% over 10 years. (2)
FareShare's
growth in tackling food waste by redistributing surplus food*; the amount of
food FareShare redistributes has increased by 205% over 10 years. (3)
Lindsay
Boswell, CEO of FareShare concluded: “We have grown phenomenally over the past
10 years in our UK operations and our links within the food and drink
industry. We have a huge challenge in
the future in getting further into the supply chain to meet ever growing demand
for our services but we have a solid and sustainable solution to food poverty
which can help tackle an ever growing issue in Britain.”
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