Tesco donates over 100k meals in Rochdale through Community Food Connection scheme

Tesco offers surplus food to local community groups in partnership with FareShare

Tesco has donated 104,444 meals of surplus food in Rochdale in the last five years, the supermarket has revealed.

The food has been donated through the Community Food Connection scheme Tesco operates with food redistribution charity FareShare, averaging around 58 local meals each day.

Every Tesco store in the UK participates in the scheme, which has seen 50 million meals being donated.

Since the start of the pandemic, almost 700 new groups have signed up to receive food from the scheme, helping to respond to the needs of communities across the UK.

The scheme works by pairing charities and community groups with their local Tesco store.

At the end of each day, a store colleague works out which food is likely to be unsold and then uses a specially developed app to tell a local charity or community group what food can be collected.

FareShare’s Chief Executive Lindsay Boswell said the scheme, the largest of its kind in the UK and believed to be the largest in Europe, was making a real difference.

He said: “We are delighted that Tesco has reached this milestone – donating the equivalent of 50 million meals is no mean feat and has gone such a long way in supporting thousands of charities and community groups up and down the country.

“The scheme is a real game-changer for organisations working with the vulnerable, allowing even more people to access good to eat food which would otherwise go to waste.”

Tesco UK CEO Jason Tarry said: “Tesco Community Food Connection has made a real difference to communities. Now that we are five years into the scheme the fact that we have donated 50m meals allows us to reflect on its success, and the difference the scheme has made not only in feeding people in communities across the UK but also to tackling climate change.

“However, there is more to do, and we are looking at how we can divert even more food from waste in future.”

To find out more about Community Food Connection visit: 

• tescoplc.com/community