Manufacturers’ support crucial to tackle soaring food poverty

10-Jun-2013 - Last updated on 19-Aug-2020 at 08:33 GMT

Related tags Poverty Good

Cheung urged food manufacturers to send surplus goods to food banks before anaerobic digestion plants

Food manufacturers and retailers need to use waste and surplus goods to benefit local communities, rather than as potential revenue streams.

Kelvin Cheung, chief executive of FoodCycle – a community-based group that provides meals for those in need, said organisations like his were having to cope with soaring levels of demand.

In this podcast for FoodManufacture.co.uk, Cheung revealed how a wide-range of social groups were now visiting FoodCycle’s 14 kitchens across the country and discussed what more industry could do to help.

Brand issues

He acknowledged that working relationships with major retailers had improved, but said there was more work to be done with manufacturers. That was particularly true when it came to health and safety, labelling and brand issues surrounding surplus stock donations.

Cheung was speaking at the Beating the Nutrition Recession: Tackling Food Poverty Conference held by Government Knowledge last week in Central London.

Listen to the podcast to hear Cheung explain why he believed the community good and positive PR created from supporting organisations like his, far outweighed “skipping straight” to solutions like anaerobic digestion.

Meanwhile, speaking at the same conference, Professor Liz Dowler from the University of Warwick called for a parliamentary inquiry into the causes of food poverty in the UK.

1 comment

Soaring food poverty

Posted by ShaneM, 12 June 2013 - 00:53 GMT

I think there are certainly positive and negative sides to this story. The positive side is that we need people like Kelvin Cheung to help make a difference in this world. The more help we get in supporting causes like poverty the better it will be for those in need.

There are plenty of people starving in today's world and it seems to be getting worse by the minute. It is no longer a third world issue but now a world issue.

The negative side is that not everyone is willing to help and sometimes it is just about making profits.

This is why we need people like Kelvin Cheung to help change this mentality. Of course business is about making a profit, but there can always be room for helping causes like this one without losing huge amounts.

ShaneM

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