Foodservice company Brakes has entered a partnership with food charity FareShare which aims to provide hundreds of thousands of quality meals to the most vulnerable people in society.

Food which has passed Brakes’ minimum shelf life, but is still ‘in date’, is to be distributed to over 30,000 vulnerable people across 600 charities and organisations around the UK per month.

As FareShare was in need of fresh meat and vegetables, Brakes is supplying healthy food that is easy and quick to prepare, from pre-prepared vegetables, to portion controlled deserts and chilled meat.

Since the initiative went live earlier this year, Brakes has donated around 300,000 meals and expects to grow this total to one million meals by 2011.

James Armitage, marketing director at Brakes, said: “Like all foodservice companies, we face a perennial problem of what to do with fit-for-purpose foods which have exceeded their minimum shelf life.

“Brakes leads the sector when it comes to minimising food waste - with just 0.2% of fresh produce going to landfill per annum - but we were determined to do more. Our FareShare partnership is an ideal solution and testament to this.

“By establishing a long-term partnership, we know we can help thousands of vulnerable people, reduce a significant expense, and limit our environmental impact.”

Tony Lowe, ceo of FareShare, added: “The food provided by Brakes really makes a difference. It is exactly the kind of high quality food that our community members really need. It enables them to provide nutritious meals to their clients - vulnerable people in real need of a healthy diet.

“We hope our relationship with Brakes will continue to flourish so that we can deliver this great food to even more people across the country.”