Newspaper backs food redistribution scheme in London
London's daily newspaper, the Evening Standard, is supporting a campaign to help supermarkets donate more of their unsold food to projects that feed the hungry and homeless
The Felix Trust was set up in 2014 by the chairman of the London Evening Standard in memory of his teenage son, Felix Byam Shaw, who had died suddenly. The Byam Shaw family bought two vans, printed the slogan 'Good Food for Good Causes' on the side, hired two drivers, and started collecting unsold food from the backs of supermarkets. It then delivered it, free of charge, to a range of charities that provide meals or snacks for those in need, including the homeless, the elderly and people with mental health difficulties.
Now the Evening Standard has thrown its weight behind the campaign, and has raised more than £700,000 from corporate sponsors, including Sainsbury's.
The project aims to fill a gap by collecting food that would otherwise go to waste from the retailers' premises -- other schemes, such as Sustain member Fareshare, which have been operating a similar service for many years, usually collect from further up the supply chain, such as the retailers' large regional distribution centres.
The declared aim of the Standard's campaign is to 'to redistribute surplus fresh food to tackle food poverty'. Without doubt, all efforts to make sure that edible food gets eaten are to be applauded. But Sustain has long argued that distributing 'surplus' food to people in desperate need tackles the problem of hunger. It does not help to resolve the underlying causes of food poverty -- such as chronically low pay, insufficient work or inadequate welfare provision. Nor does it encourage the retailers to adopt more environmentally friendly stocking policies, which would avoid waste in the first place. But the paper's campaign recognises that this is only one action, and we hope that such a high profile campaign could provide the momentum to tackle the root causes of food poverty as well.
Read more on Sustain's views in our blog on the Evening Standard's campaign and more about the paper's campaign itself here. And find out more about Sustain's work on food poverty here.
Published Friday 23 September 2016
Food Poverty: Millions of people in the UK struggle to get enough to eat. We’re working to change that through people-powered projects and campaigns that tackle the root causes of food poverty and ensure everyone has dignified access to healthy, affordable food.
