Retailer distributes 63,000 kgs of surplus food to local charities

TESCO Ireland said this week that local charities and groups across Wexford have received almost 141,000 meals to date from the company through its surplus food donations programme which is run in partnership with Irish social enterprise, FoodCloud.

A wide range of Wexford organisations, including Gorey Youth Needs Group, New Ross Community Food Bank, and Taghmon Family Resource Centre, have benefited from the redistribution of over 63,000 kgs (or 141,000 meals) of surplus food from Tesco stores across Wexford since 2014.

Nationally, Tesco’s surplus food donations programme has redistributed over two million meals to 195 charities since its launch in July 2014. This equates to over 20,000 meals distributed to charities and groups every week..

At present, 109 of Tesco’s 148 Irish stores (73 per cent) support local good causes with surplus food donations, with the retailer planning to introduce the programme into all of its Irish stores by the end of 2016. With two million meals redistributed to date, equating to 1000 tonnes of food, Tesco is encouraging more charities across Ireland to sign up and take part in this initiative.

Speaking about the initiative, Aoife Parle, area community champion for Tesco in Wexford, said ‘my day-to-day role involves working with the charities and FoodCloud to ensure our partners are receiving food which works for them. I have seen the impact that this initiative has on these organisations and I am delighted to play a role. I would encourage any charity to get involved in FoodCloud.’