Store offering free food to charities

Charities and community groups in Wishaw are being invited to receive free surplus food from Tesco’s store in Belhaven Road.

Across the UK the supermarket donates more than a million meals each month as part of its Community Food Connection scheme, run in conjunction with food charity Fareshare and powered by Foodcloud technology.

The scheme enables 7,000 charities and community groups across the UK to pick up free food, but there are still slots available and the supermarket is looking for local groups to come forward to fill them.

Tesco’s Head of Community, Alec Brown, said: “We know that the surplus food we can provide makes a real difference to charities and community groups across the UK, allowing them to supplement their budgets and provide additional services.

“We want as many groups as possible to benefit from our surplus food, which would otherwise go to waste, and so we are looking for any charities that would like to benefit to get in touch with Fareshare.”

The free food includes bakery products, fresh produce such as fruit, and vegetables and chilled food like meat, cheese and ready meals. Groups registered are given scheduled collection days and receive a text alert to tell them what food is available. They can then choose what they want from the surplus food on offer.

To date more than 39 million meals of surplus food have been donated by the supermarket.

Lindsay Boswell, chief executive of Fareshare, said: “We support many amazing frontline charities which use in date surplus food from Tesco to feed thousands of vulnerable people right throughout the year. I would urge groups in Wishaw to contact us to find out how they could benefit.”

Register your interest by visiting https:// fareshare.org.uk/getting-food/faresharego-support/