Britain’s food supply chain morally mad, Corbyn told

The food supply chain in the UK is “morally mad” with just 4 per cent of surplus food saved from needless waste, volunteers told Jeremy Corbyn on his tour of marginal constituencies.

The Labour leader met volunteers from a number of clubs and co-operatives in Morecambe, Lancashire, who highlighted their efforts to save indate and good-to-eat food which was destined for landfill because of overproduction or labelling errors.

Robyn Thomas, manager of Stanley’s Youth and Community Centre, told him they had dealt with a young child who had eaten from a bin at school and another who was rocking back and forth at the centre with hunger.

Members of co-operative Sustainability Morecambe and food clubs from the Stanley Road centre and Lancaster Labour Community Club said they all worked with Fareshare which redistributes food destined for waste to charities and community groups, although some 1.9 million tonnes of food is estimated by Fareshare to be wasted every year.

Linda Smalley, co-founder of Sustainability Morecambe, said: “It’s not just about food poverty, it’s about social isolation, it’s about people feeling they are part of a community and they can contribute.”