Free food for charities

Charities and community groups are being invited to sign up to receive surplus food from a supermarket chain.

Across the UK Tesco distributes hundreds of thousands of meals every week as part of its Community Food Connection scheme, which is run in conjunction with food redistribution charity Fareshare.

Almost 7000 charities and community groups receive surplus food through the scheme, with recipients including older people’s lunch clubs, school breakfast clubs and charities working with vulnerable and homeless people.

But more food is available and the company is encouraging groups in Perth to find out more about how they could benefit.

The supermarket giant has three stores in the Fair City, one in Scone and another in Blairgowrie.

Tesco’s Tony McElroy said:“Community Food Connection is making a real difference in communities across the UK but we know there are more groups that could receive food from the scheme.

“This is the biggest supermarket food redistribution scheme in the UK and I’d encourage any group looking to use food in their work to discover how they could benefit.”

The surplus food available includes fresh fruit and vegetables, bakery products and chilled food including meat, cheese and ready meals.

Groups are given scheduled collection days and receive a text alert to tell them what food is available at their local store.

Lindsay Boswell of Fareshare said:“We support many amazing charities which use surplus food from Tesco.

“We know that the surplus food makes a real difference to the work of these groups, often saving them money which can go towards other valuable services.”

Visit www.fareshare.org.uk/fareshare-go for more information.