FareShare surplus food fund

FareShare's Surplus with Purpose is a £3 million fund that provides funding of up to £50,000 to food businesses in the UK to offset the costs of sending good quality surplus food to good causes, helping the people most in need.

The fund is open to companies seeking to unlock new or hard to reach surplus (or ‘waste’) food, as well as those that haven’t previously worked with FareShare.

The type of foods eligible for support includes:

• Packaging / labelling errors
• Stock that’s become surplus due to forecasting errors
• Stock below MLOR (48 hours minimum life on receipt by FareShare)
• Fruit & veg past BBE
• Stock past BBE (subject to manufacturer’s extension letter)
• Quality rejections – ‘out of spec’
• Unfinished products
• Bulk ingredients for manufacturing
• Lines no longer being retailed
• Samples and NPD’s
• Foreign label stock
• Damages
• Seasonal stock
• Retailer branded food.

The funding can be used to cover the additional staff costs needed for packing and sorting edible surplus food, or in building, implementing and managing new processes. It could also cover packaging and transportation costs, or lost income from the sale of surplus to animal feed or anaerobic digestion.

Funding applications can be submitted at any time: https://fareshare.org.uk/giving-food