Waitrose partners with FareShare to ease food poverty

Waitrose has announced a major partnership with the food charity FareShare, which will see even more of the supermarket’s surplus food go to help the most vulnerable members of local communities.

FareShare accredited charities will now be able to collect surplus food directly from their local Waitrose branches to help those most in need.

This national announcement builds on Waitrose’s existing partnership with London-based charity Esther Community Enterprises (ECE) who also take surplus food from Waitrose for donation within local communities.

Waitrose has already achieved its aim of diverting all waste food from landfill - three months ahead of target. All food waste now goes to Anaerobic Digestion where it is converted into energy and fed into the National Grid or goes to In Vessel Composting (IVC) where AD is not an option.

This new partnership with FareShare will help Waitrose reach even more charities around the UK.

Laura Strangeway, Waitrose Manager, Sustainability & Ethical Sourcing said: “Donations offer real community benefit and are the most ethical and environmentally sound solution to the question of what to do with surplus food that would, otherwise, be deemed as waste.”

Laura added: “Of course, it is not in our business interest to produce any surplus food, but inevitably some does occur and so we’re really delighted to have teamed up with FareShare and ECE and we look forward to building new relationships with other charities as we redistribute surplus food to those most in need.”

Lindsay Boswell, CEO, FareShare said: “FareShare redistributes surplus food to over 700 charities across the country, helping feed some of the most vulnerable people in our society. We welcome this initiative that will help us keep up with the increasing demand for good quality food and congratulate Waitrose on doing the right thing with their surpluses.