Tesco and FareShare are calling out to charities and community groups across the north east to register for an exciting new service which will see unsold food become meals for vulnerable people across the city.
As part of its ongoing pledge to cut food waste, Tesco’s Community Food Connection programme with FareShare FoodCloud will recruit and support charities and community groups, linking them to Tesco stores with innovative technology that allows store teams to alert beneficiaries to surplus food items available at the end of each day.
To launch Community Food Connection with FareShare FoodCloud in the North East, Tesco held an exclusive cookery demonstration at Jesmond United Reformed Church on Tuesday 8 March.
Hosted by a professional chef, the free event demonstrated how charities can make best use of surplus food from Tesco, offering recipe inspiration and tips on how to make the most of various ingredients.
Currently, the unsold food available will be fresh produce, such as fruit, vegetables and bakery products. Chilled products like meat, dairy and ready meals are also offered.
FareShare FoodCloud is a partnership between UK food redistribution charity FareShare and Irish social enterprise FoodCloud. FareShare centrally connects charities and community groups with their local Tesco stores after visiting them to check their ability to take the food. FoodCloud provides the technology for the app, which has now been incorporated into the standard operations of Tesco stores in the north east.
Marc Smith, store manager at Tesco Gateshead Trinity Square, said: “No food that can be eaten should go to waste. We’re working hard to make sure that the unsold food is made the most of; we have great links with local charities and community groups, so we’re pleased to introduce another initiative that will support their efforts to help vulnerable people.”
Barry Densham, North East regional coordinator at FareShare, said: “We are delighted to be offering our store level solution in partnership with Tesco who are demonstrating real leadership in tackling food surplus. FareShare FoodCloud is a natural extension of our work together.
“Our role as a trusted partner to the voluntary sector is really important to the charities and community groups we work with and we are excited to launch this new service with Tesco’s support.”
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.
Tesco’s 20 stores in the north east are among the first in the country to roll out the service, following a pilot in 14 stores which saw Tesco donate over 22 tonnes of food to more than 50 charities, the equivalent weight to over 50,000 meals.
For more information and to register for FareShare FoodCloud please visit www.fareshare.org.uk/fareshare-foodcloud