‘Let’s Make a Meal of It’ saw M&S, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose come together to encourage customers to donate both in store and online.
The campaign was inspired by figures from The Food Foundation that show more than eight million people go hungry in the UK, including 2.2 million children.
Despite the clear need, most frontline charities say they cannot meet demand for food. As a result, the Let’s Make a Meal of It campaign raised funds to provide new sources of food through the rescue of edible surplus from the UK food supply chain.
Illustrating the importance of the campaign, the British public donated 45% more than last year, with every £1 donated helping to provide five meals.
Let’s Make a Meal of It was spearheaded by food industry convener Alliance Food Sourcing (AFS) and food redistribution charity The Felix Project.
AFS is a coalition of 50 food businesses that is working to unlock surplus food, resources and factory capacity across the food supply chain and turn them into meals for charities.
It focuses on edible surplus that goes to waste before reaching consumers, for example when packaging is defective or during production changeovers.
The participating retailers said funding will be targeted at high-demand products such as fresh produce, protein and cupboard staples.
This includes:
- Rescuing 500 tonnes of surplus fresh fruit and vegetables that would otherwise be wasted
- Developing new processes to create vitamin-rich juices and smoothies from surplus fruit
- Providing 250 tonnes of rice and noodles
- Supplying 80 tonnes of porridge
- Delivering one million cans of Branston Baked Beans, produced by unlocking factory capacity during seasonal downtime, to charities from the end of July
- Supplying minced meat using surplus factory capacity from August
- Repurposing surplus ingredients to produce nutritious fishcakes
The focus on cupboard staples is important because they account for just 4% of donated food, according to the campaign.
Simon Roberts, chief executive officer (CEO) of Sainsbury’s and president of the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD), said: “It’s been really encouraging to see retailers come together through Let’s Make a Meal of It, and we are incredibly grateful to the millions of customers who donated so generously.
“Their tremendous support will help unlock more good food that otherwise might go to waste and get it to charities supporting people facing hunger across the UK.”
A range of other businesses across the industry is also supporting the identification and implementation of new food sources, including Asda and suppliers Albert Bartlett, Associated British Foods, Dovecote Park, Hilton Foods Seachill and Princes Group.
Because this food is rescued from the supply chain before packaging and transportation, it can be provided to charities far more cost effectively.
The £500,000 raised is expected to provide food with an estimated retail value of around £5.5 million.
Gordon Gafa, managing director (MD) of UK Food at Tesco, added: “We are delighted to see that the Let’s Make a Meal of It campaign was such a success.
“Thank you to our customers who generously donated; we are looking forward to seeing how the money can help support communities across the country.”
