The immediate reaction to Covid-19 was one of shock. The type of shock that makes people stockpile food, fight over loo roll and set fire to 5G masts. Five months into this ‘new normal’, and focus has turned to what the aftermath will look like.
Last week’s announcement that the UK is in recession was no surprise. We have collectively accepted the financial pain caused by this virus, and accepted there may be worse to come, for example when the furlough scheme ends in October.
One thing we must not accept as a consequence is hunger. Since Covid-19 hit, demand for food banks has hit a high. So notable is this spike that, this week, Tesco announced it would be holding an extra summer food collection in support of food redistribution charities.
So it’s an apt time to return to the key aim of The Grocer’s Waste Not Want Not campaign: government funding for surplus food redistribution. In 2018, the government released £15m in funds for companies such as FareShare to carry out this vital work, following a Grocer petition that attracted more than 10,000 signatures.
This week, the full impact of those funds has been laid bare. FareShare revealed its Surplus with Purpose Fund, backed by funding won from Defra, has made an extra 12,429 tonnes worth of surplus food available to charities in the past year.
It’s an undeniably impressive number, but it’s important that we don’t see this as job done. As hunger looks set to become a far more significant problem in the UK, this kind of work must be built upon and continued.
Efra seems to have got the message. Its recent report on the impact of Covid-19 calls on government to continue funding FareShare’s efforts in the aftermath of the crisis, suggesting £5m per year could double the amount of surplus food delivered to charities supporting those need. It also suggested a minister for the hungry, an idea first mooted by FDF chairman Ian Wright.
These recommendations would be a start. Because without sustained and pre-emptive action, many UK households won’t make a recovery from Covid.
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