CHESHUNT, England, 2016-Mar-14 — /EPR Retail News/ — Tesco announces nationwide rollout of Community Food Connection with FareShare FoodCloud, which will redirect millions of meals of Tesco surplus food to charity by end of 2017.
Tesco CEO Dave Lewis has today announced the nationwide rollout of an initiative designed to dramatically reduce the amount of food that goes to waste.
The move follows through a farm to fork commitment by Tesco to tackle food waste from its suppliers, through its stores, and customers’ homes.
The groundbreaking nationwide scheme – Community Food Connection with FareShare FoodCloud – is being launched this week in 15 cities and regions across the UK including Manchester, Birmingham, Southampton and Portsmouth.
In the coming months the initiative will be rolled out to Leeds, Leicester, Kent and the West Midlands. Tesco has said it will reach all large Tesco stores – numbering over 800 – by the end of 2016, with all stores covered by the end of 2017.
Community Food Connection is powered by FareShare FoodCloud, an open platform that helps store colleagues and charities work together seamlessly.
Tesco also believes that once fully developed, other retailers could adopt FareShare FoodCloud to create an industry standard platform to make a real difference to local charities and communities.
According to Tesco, food waste is a global issue. Chief Executive, Dave Lewis was recently appointed chair of a coalition of leaders from government, businesses, international organisations, research institutions, and civil society called Champions 12.3. The Champions 12.3 coalition will work to create political, business and social momentum to reduce food loss and waste around the world.
Dave Lewis, Tesco CEO said:
“We believe no food that could be eaten should be wasted – that’s why we have committed that no surplus food should go to waste from our stores.
“We know it’s an issue our customers really care about, and wherever there’s surplus food at Tesco stores, we’re committed to donating it to local charities so we can help feed people in need.
“But we know the challenge is bigger than this and that’s why we’ve made a farm to fork commitment to reduce food waste upstream with our suppliers and in our own operations and downstream in our customers’ own homes.”
The scheme has already been piloted in fourteen Tesco stores over the past six months and has generated over 22 tonnes of food – the equivalent to 50,000 meals.
Tesco and FareShare are calling out for 5,000 charities and community groups to join up and receive free surplus food through the scheme, as part of a huge nationwide charity recruitment drive.
The scheme will be in place in all Tesco stores by the end of 2017, which means thousands of charities all over the country will benefit from millions of pounds worth of surplus food each year.
The latest figures show 55,400 tonnes of food were thrown away at Tesco stores and distribution centres in the UK last year, of which around 30,000 tonnes could otherwise have been eaten – equivalent to around 70 million meals.
Lindsay Boswell, FareShare CEO 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 which has already provided nine million meals to help feed vulnerable people.
“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.
Tesco remains the only UK retailer to publish transparent data about food waste from its own operations. The next set of food waste data will be published by Tesco in May.
For more information please contact the Tesco Press Office on 01707 918 701
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Notes to Editors
About Community Food Connection with FareShare FoodCloud
Through Community Food Connection with FareShare FoodCloud, Tesco store managers alert charities and community groups to the amount of surplus food they have at the end of each day. The charity then confirms it wants the food, picks it up free of charge from the store and turns it into meals for people who need it.
Beneficiaries of the charities receiving food come from the wide range of charities supported by FareShare including homeless hostels, women’s refuges and breakfast clubs for disadvantaged children.
Organisations from across the UK can apply to join the scheme at www.fareshare.org.uk/fareshare-foodcloud
About the work Tesco has done to reduce food waste
Our goal at Tesco is to never throw away food that could be eaten: if we can’t sell it, we will offer it to charities and community groups to feed people in need. By 2017 we will roll out Community Food Connection to all of our UK stores.
Community Food Connection with FareShare FoodCloud is the latest innovation in Tesco’s work with FareShare on the provision of surplus food. The partnership has included activities which make food available from the Tesco supply chain, Distribution Centres and Dotcom centres. This has seen four and a half million meals of surplus food donated to support nearly 2,000 charities and community groups across the UK.
Tesco sees a shared responsibility when it comes to tackling food waste. It is working with its suppliers to cut food waste in the supply chain, and is helping customers to reduce the amount of food thrown away in their homes.
Tesco ended Buy One Get One Free offers on fruit and vegetables in the UK in April 2014.
Tesco has also launched a competition in partnership with WRAP and Innovate UK to find new ways of helping reduce the amount of good food that ends up in the bin at home. Entrepreneurs will be invited to present their ideas to Tesco, and the best ideas will be trialled by the retailer. Food waste has a huge impact on family finances with UK families estimated to throw around £700 worth of food away each year.
About Champions 12.3
Dave Lewis will be chairing a coalition of leaders from government, businesses, international organizations, research institutions, and civil society called Champions 12.3. This group will be dedicated to accelerating progress towards achieving the UN Sustainable Development Target 12.3 by 2030.
The UN Sustainable Development Goal 12 seeks to “ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.” The third target under this goal (Target 12.3) calls for cutting in half per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer level, and reducing food losses along production and supply chains by 2030.