Tesco reaches 50m milestone for handing out free food packs

An East Kilbride supermarket has donated over 68,000 meals to those most in need.

Tesco handed out 68,559 meals of surplus food across East Kilbride, helping the supermarket hit a milestone of 50 million meals donated across the UK.

The food was dished up through the company’s Community Food Connection scheme with food redistribution charity FareShare.

Every Tesco store in the UK participates in the scheme, which is celebrating five years of helping communities across the country. The largest of its kind in the UK, and believed to be the largest in Europe, FareShare’s Lindsay Boswell said it was making a real difference.

The charity’s chief executive said: “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.”

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.

Tesco UK CEO Jason Tarry was proud of the company’s achievemnt, but said they are looking at how they can divert even more food from waste in future.

To find out more about Community Food Connection visit: tescoplc.com/ community