UK Supermarket Donates all Unwanted Food to Charity
Morrisons to donate all unwanted food to charity
Text: From http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11968491/Morrisons-to-donate-all-unwanted-food-to-charity.html
Source: The Telegraph
Morrisons will become the UK’s first supermarket to donate all surplus food to charity
Morrisons has announced it will give away all its surplus food to charity instead of throwing it in the bin.
The retailer has become the UK’s first supermarket to donate all unsold food to local community groups helping those in need.
It follows a successful trial in Yorkshire and the north east involving 112 stores, according to a report in the Times.
They found each of the stores could supply up to four trolley loads of unsold food a week to help feed the hungry.
“The challenge is finding the right community partners to work with. What we have available will vary,” explained Stephen Butts, head of corporate responsibility for Morrisons.
“Ideally we are looking for groups that can cook the food, meaning they can blend it [with food from other sources].”
The new initiative will to be rolled out nationwide, with one member of staff in each store being responsible for working with the charity groups.
Legally, Morrisons is unable to donate food past its ‘use-by’ date but can offer food that is safe to be eaten and past its best-before date.
An estimated 15 million of tonnes of food is wasted in the UK each year, at a cost of £5bn.
More than 180,000 people have signed a petition calling for the UK’s supermarkets to hand over their unsold food to charities.
“Rather than wasting millions of pounds worth of food that is still usable, make supermarkets donate their leftover products that are still safe to eat, to food banks,” it says.
“Encourage existing customers to donate towards a delivery service to needy people in their area on the delivery run.”
