How Nicola Robinson’s food sourcing alliance is taking shape

In the space of two years, Nicola Robinson has gone from running Tesco’s health, beauty and wellness division to fronting the industry’s efforts to “remap” surplus food redistribution as the boss of the new Alliance Food Sourcing programme.

It’s hoped the new joint venture between FareShare and the Felix Project will be a “gamechanger” in tackling the scandalous 3.6 million tonnes of edible food that goes to waste in the UK each year, according to Wrap. But for Robinson, who admits she had virtually no work experience linked to food redistribution, there was a further motivation for her dramatic career change: the number of people living with food security in the UK, which since 2020 has increased to a staggering 10 million, including 2.7 million children.

“In my personal life I’ve always been as altruistic as I can be,” she says. “I do a lot of volunteering, I have two adopted children and I’m particularly interested in improving opportunities for disadvantaged children. That was a big reason for applying, along with utilising my 25 years’ experience and contacts in the industry to good effect.”

So what’s the plan? How does the new alliance differ from previous efforts? And how can it move the needle without trampling all over other redistribution charities?

Tackling food waste further upstream

When King Charles launched his Coronation Food Project in 2023, a raft of food companies stepped up their efforts to do a better job on food surplus redistribution. In the past year, M&S and 2 Sisters have developed over 600,000 ready meal equivalents for FareShare. Tesco, working with Samworth and Bakkavor, has provided 800,000 meals, with more to come. And both Morrisons and Asda (IPL) have worked on grading processes that have recovered 600 tonnes of vegetables for charity.

But Alliance Food Sourcing – which launched exactly one year after the Coronation Food Project kicked off – is not about ramping up food donation numbers, says Robinson. It’s about making changes to production line activities, creating an entirely new source of food to help charities, for whom the supply of traditional donations from the industry is shrinking as food waste prevention methods become more efficient.

“We’ve recognised there’s an opportunity on a bigger collective scale to join up and look at the industry supply chain together,” says Robinson. “This is particularly important because the typical routes of donating have been decreasing because of the greater efficiency. Finished and retail-ready products that are available to redistribution charities have been in decline.

“So we want to go further upstream to supply chains and combine our efforts to secure food surplus.”

With more than 30 retailers and suppliers since signing up, Robinson has been clocking up the miles visiting factories to discover how companies might change their processes to respond to the call. She’s been to 19 premises to carry out what she calls “factory walks” since taking up her post.

And while Robinson admits to having little experience of the highly political world of food surplus and waste, she goes in backed up by experts from Newton, the consultants who’ve joined forces, as well as the weight of IGD, which is hosting the project.

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“Newton has worked in over 200 factories, and with over half the top 10 retailers,” says Robinson. “That’s giving us a strong indication of where to explore and what sorts of category opportunities there are. We’re very confident that as a team we have the skills needed to do this.

We’re now calling on the industry to undergo more of those factory walks with us, so that we can remap them as surplus opportunities for charities to tackle food insecurity.”

The brief includes looking at how companies can do more to repurpose waste from spare ingredients, such as the byproducts of food in a semi-finished state, as well as how line changes in production could be adapted to save tens of thousands of tonnes of food from going to waste.

“Alliance is particularly important because the typical routes of donating have been decreasing due to the food industry’s greater efficiency”

Adapting production processes to create products that – whilst failing the strict demands of supermarkets – would be welcomed with open arms by food charities is another way the new body hopes to transform food production practices.

Examples are already emerging of how relatively small changes can create new ways to redistribute surplus. Ready Meals giant Charlie Bigham’s is now capturing surplus cooking sauces on its production line in large capkold bags – which FareShare can donate to catering charities.

“The fact we’ve already got 32 suppliers and retail partners on board is testament to how much passion and commitment there is to us,” she says. “But we know that’s just the beginning.”

Food waste a political hot potato

Yet as Robinson is finding out, the world of food surplus – despite all the altruistic ambitions – is a hornet’s nest. It has led to controversy over whether the industry is doing enough, but also whether efforts are being fairly shared across the raft of different charities on the frontline.

Indeed, Alliance Food Sourcing had barely been announced before it was being slammed by the Food Ethics Council for prioritising food surplus redistribution rather than tackling the bigger issue of food waste. It also attacked the industry and government for failing to address the root cause of poverty and food insecurity, accusing them instead of normalising them by creating a new channel for surplus.

Whilst reluctant to criticise the King’s Coronation Food Project in public, privately some food redistribution bodies also fear Alliance Food Sourcing could cement the domination of FareShare and its partner the Felix Project, with other, smaller charities seeing their established supply of redistributed food from manufacturers taken away.

Robinson is adamant such fears are misplaced. “This is a new, unique and incremental way of remapping food surplus,” she says. “We absolutely are not about taking from existing sources or other charities. What I do see is a real opportunity for system change.

“Rather than quite a lot of it being one-off donations, which inevitably give the charities some degree of inefficiency, if we can smooth that out with ambient meals, soups, ready meals, rice and pasta, it will make a huge difference. I would really love to see that.

“If charities know what they’re going to receive on a steady and continuous basis, that’s a better way. I want this to reach a much bigger scale. I will never lose sight of that 3.6 million tonnes figure of edible food going to waste. That’s the reality of the potential if we collaborate and share the processes together. That’s what Alliance Food Sourcing is all about.”