Surplus food donated to charity

MORE than 71,000 meals have been provided to charities and community groups across Angus thanks to Tesco’s surplus food redistribution scheme Community Food Connection.

The initiative has now been rolled out to all of Tesco’s stores across the UK. Stores are able to provide surplus food every night.

To date, more than 20 million meals have been provided to charities and community groups taking part in the scheme, with food for 600,000 meals a week now being provided to good causes across the UK, saving them money which can be used to provide other services.

In Scotland, Tesco’s initiative has seen two million meals donated to local groups including homeless shelters, community centres, breakfast clubs and groups providing food to vulnerable older people.

The Community Food Connection programme is run in conjunction with FareShare and FoodCloud. Good causes are able to link up with local Tesco stores, from small Express stores to large Tesco Extras, via an innovative app that allows store teams to alert them to surplus unsold food available at the end of each day.

Not only does the scheme benefit t he community groups involved, but it also prevents unsold food going to waste.

Tony McElroy, head of communications for Tesco in Scotland, said: “We know that Community Food Connection is making a real difference to communities in Scotland by providing people in need with meals from food that would otherwise go to waste.”