Tesco calls on Oldham charities to join free food scheme
Date published: 02 October 2017
FareShare
Charities and community groups in Oldham are urged to sign up to a scheme that lets them collect surplus food from their local Tesco store. The food is free, and will include fresh produce such as fruit and vegetables, bakery products and chilled food like meat, cheese and ready meals.
Since launching in February 2016, the initiative, Community Food Connection, has helped provide 11 million meals to over 5,800 charities and community groups, whose service users might otherwise go hungry.
In Oldham, 24,119 meals have been donated by stores on the scheme and have already benefited local charities. Tesco has stated its commitment to ensure no food fit for human consumption will go to waste from their UK retail operations by the end of 2017.
Tesco is now set to extend Community Food Connection to its convenience stores across Oldham, which will significantly extend the number of charities reached and the number of meals given to people in need. Groups that benefit include homeless shelters, substance abuse rehabilitation services, after-school clubs, foodbanks and domestic violence refuges.
Tesco’s Community Food Connection programme, with FareShare, recruits and supports charities and community groups, linking them to Tesco stores via an app that allows store teams to alert them to surplus unsold food items available at the end of each day.
Mark Thomas, Corporate Affairs Manager for the North of England, from Tesco said: “At Tesco we have no time for waste. We are so proud to already support local charities and community groups through Community Food Connection from our larger stores in Oldham and to be able to extend that support to our convenience stores is fantastic.
“We are looking forward to forging more strong links with local charities and community groups in Oldham, and supporting their efforts to help more vulnerable people in our community.”
If you are a charity or community group that could benefit from the support of Community Food Connection, to register visit:
