The Co-op is calling time on last-minute sales in a bid to reduce fresh food waste in its stores.
On 18 May the retailer launched a national food redistribution scheme to donate fresh food, bakery products and other items to thousands of community groups before they exceed their ‘use by’ or ‘best before’ dates.
The Co-op already works with food waste charity, FareShare, to redistribute food from its depots, and since 2013 it has provided enough food for over three million meals.
The new Food Share project will see fresh food taken off shelf earlier and collected by charities in time for them to either cook or freeze it while it is still in date.
The move aims to let groups make use of as much food as possible and allows them to collect from multiple stores regularly, with flexible collection times.
Following a successful trial that linked 50 branches of the Co-op with local charities and community groups, the scheme will be rolled out in phases across the Co-op’s network in 2018.
The initiative is being formally unveiled by the retailer’s chief executive Steve Murrells at the member-owned business' AGM this week. He said: “We’re calling time on food waste and will take products off sale earlier to get fresh food with its use-by date to charities in time for them to cook or freeze.
“We work hard to reduce waste but believe any food that we don’t sell should end up feeding people, wherever possible.
“We’ve been listening to our charity partners and community groups and they tell us that in order to create healthy and nutritious meals they need access to fresh food. Now we are making that possible.”
Laura Winningham, chief executive of London-based hunger relief charity, City Harvest, added: “We’ve helped trial the scheme and we are absolutely thrilled to see the programme roll out across the rest of the UK.
“Often, charities like ours are inundated with bread and bakery items but what we desperately need, to be able to provide people nutritious hearty meals, is a wider range of fresh produce.
“Creating a flexible system to allow charities access to surplus meat, salads and fruit and vegetables means more good food can help to meet the growing demand out in the community.
“It’s great to think that organisations like ours, all over the country, will be able to build strong working relationships with their local Co-op stores which will deliver immeasurable amounts of benefit to those most in need.”
The Co-op is a signatory to the Courtauld Commitment 2025, which brings together leading organisations from across the food chain to tackle food and drink waste, working towards the UN’s goal of halving food waste by 2030.
Wrap’s head of business collaboration Dr David Moon welcomed the Co-op’s new initiative, saying it would “contribute significantly to the ambition of Courtauld Commitment 2025 signatories to double the amount of surplus food they redistribute by 2020 against a 2015 baseline.”
Charities and other groups who can commit to collecting fresh food regularly and providing meals for people in the community on a not-for-profit basis, can apply to be a part of Co-op Food Share by registering their details at:http://www.coop.co.uk/foodshare
