Increase of 25% surplus food donated to FareShare

FareShare’s annual figures for 2017/18 show an increase of the amount of saved food by 25% compared to the previous year. This means 16,992 tonnes of food were saved from going to waste.

The surplus food was redistributed to 9,653 charities and community groups across the country. FareShare feed 772,390 people every week – 59% more than the year before. They say that their food saved the charity sector £28.7 million; “With the increasing demand for food support, these are powerful and important figures.”

Simon Shaw, the Food Power Programme Coordinator at Sustain believes that this work is incredibly important but surplus food is not the only solution to food poverty:

“We want to live in a country where everyone can afford to feed themselves and their children. In the fifth largest economy in the world this is well within reach, yet right now in the UK 8.4 million people are going hungry. Often parents will miss meals so their children can eat.

Whilst redistributing food that would otherwise go uneaten is a compassionate response, and reduces the amount of edible food going to waste - food aid will not solve the deep causes of food poverty. Low pay and insufficient welfare support, as well as lack of availability in some areas, leaves people unable to put food on the table to feed their families.

To make food poverty a thing of the past we need food, work and welfare policies that uphold our Right to Food.”

Sustain’s Food Power campaign is an exciting new programme working with local communities across the UK to strengthen their ability to reduce food poverty.