As the UK’s leading food redistribution charity, FareShare has always been led by the type of surplus food that is available to give to the thousands of local charities we support. We forecast surplus, like preparing for the seasonal glut of courgettes in the summer, and take on last-minute requests like pallets of mislabelled cereal boxes.
For 30 years, the generosity and collaboration of the food industry has helped FareShare’s charity partners transform surplus food into meals and provide wraparound support for communities across the UK. But with almost 10 million people in the UK facing food insecurity, we cannot afford to be led by supply: we need to meet demand.
Over half (55%) of the charities we support would have to close their food services without FareShare, while 86% say they’ve seen an increase in demand. Many are still feeling the impact of the pandemic alongside the continued rise in the cost of living, and our charities are working tirelessly to meet the immediate needs of their local communities.
Meanwhile the food industry, particularly the retail sector, has done incredible work to combat environmental impacts by reducing their food waste. This should be celebrated. At the same time, plenty of food waste occurs at farmgate, with over seven billion meals going to waste on our farms, as it’s too expensive for farmers to redistribute this food to charities.
Regardless of where surplus comes from, we believe this food should go to people, not to waste. By prioritising redistribution before alternative uses, we can ensure surplus food strengthens communities, reduces food waste, and helps cut the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Manufacturing opportunities
A great opportunity lies in manufacturing, which accounts for over three times more food waste than occurs in retail. It is, however, often in difficult bulk and unpackaged formats. We need innovation and collaboration across the sector to help access this surplus, and transform it into the food needed most by charities to help support communities.
We are working to address these issues. One way is through Alliance Food Sourcing: an initiative led by IGD, FareShare, and The Felix Project that invites retailers and manufacturers to work together to identify surplus in all its forms to reduce waste, and provide a steady supply of edible surplus for people in need.
For example, the changeover in production lines provides opportunity for accessing surplus. Instead of wasting unused orange juice when changing from bottling orange to mango juice, we can use the same machinery to create a bespoke tropical juice blend specifically to support FareShare.
Meanwhile, FareShare’s Food Life Extension Project has enabled us to rescue fresh produce by turning it into tinned soups or freezing fresh produce. This is made possible by the support of partners’ suppliers, including manufacturing lines and canneries, along with funding from the Julia Rausing Trust.
This cross-sector collaboration has unlocked meals that can make a real difference to supporting so many communities and families in need.
Farmgate waste
When it comes to waste on farms, we have already seen some commitment from the government to build capacity through the recently announced £15m Defra farmgate food waste fund.
However, greater intervention is needed to tackle the levels of edible food surplus that go to waste on our farms. We need additional support to enable farmers to prioritise sending surplus for human consumption, rather than to anaerobic digestion or animal feed.
This includes ensuring farmers can cover the costs of harvesting, storing and transporting surplus food, expanding the Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS) to include surplus food redistribution as a funded ‘public good’, and introducing a financial incentive scheme, such as a pilot surplus subsidy, to remove barriers to redistribution, as seen in other countries. Additionally, revising the tax framework to allow farmers to offset the costs of donating food would make redistribution the most viable option.
The government is a key stakeholder in the future of food surplus redistribution, and can help the UK stand as a leader in the sector alongside our international counterparts in the US, France, and Spain.
We need them to support the food and charity sectors, to get even more of this nutritious food to charities, strengthening communities and changing lives across the UK.
No comments yet