The Heart of England Co-op has become the latest co-op society to join forces with anti-waste app Too Good To Go.
The partnership means its 35-strong estate is now bolstering its efforts to make sure surplus food doesn’t go to waste, within local communities across Coventry, Warwickshire, south Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.
Its pilot with five stores, which launched on 12 November, has already helped save more than 500 ‘magic bags’ of food from being thrown away, along with the wider rollout on 3 December. This equates to 1,250kg of CO2 emissions.
The Heart of England ‘magic bags’ contain a variety of surplus grocery food, from fresh fruit & veg through to ready meals and snacks. The bags are available for £3.30 and will contain food worth at least three times that value.
Other co-op societies already on board with the scheme are Scotmid, Midcounties and Central England.
“I’m thrilled to count Heart of England Co-op as one of our new partners here in the UK,” said Too Good To Go UK MD Paschalis Loucaides.
“To win the fight against food waste and protest the future of our planet we need to work with as many businesses as possible to redistribute surplus food to those who can enjoy it. This new partnership bolsters these efforts and ensures delicious produce will now be eaten rather than wasted.
“I’m excited to see the impact we can have together.”
The Too Good To Go partnership adds another initiative to the Heart of England’s drive to become a sustainable retailer.
This year, for example, it launched soft plastic recycling bins to all stores, while it replaced single-use plastic bags with compostable ones. All stores have also had LED lighting installed.
In its mission to fight food waste, it also partnered with Gander earlier this year to support its reduced to clear policy, helping to stop products from being binned too soon.
In addition, Heart of England continues to work with FareShare and The Trussell Trust. Since it launched with FareShare in 2019, the retailer has donated 35,000kg of goods to food groups across its regions.
“As a society, we are committed to making a difference to our customers and members in the communities we serve,” said Heart of England Co-op GM Steve Browne.
“Sustainability has been a huge part of our agenda during the last 18 months and continues to be in years to come. Working with Too Good To Go is just one strand of our sustainability mantra and the results since launch have shown positive results across our stores.”
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