Drive to end food waste after 476 tonnes of food given to charities in Essex last year
FareShare has redistributed 55,000 tonnes of food to people across the UK at risk of hunger.
Last updated 16th Jun 2021
There’s a drive to end food waste in Essex from an organisation that redistributed around fifty-five thousand tonnes of spare food last year.
Last year, the FareShare moved nearly 476 tonnes of food to people in need in Essex, helping 163 charities.
They are now calling on government and industry to do much more to stop needless food waste to help the environment, as well as people in need.
It comes as it publishes new figures, which show the devastating impact the last year has had on communities and families.
According to the charity’s annual statistics between April 2020 and March 2021, it redistributed more than fifty-five thousand (55,000) tonnes of food to people at risk of hunger - equivalent to nearly 132 million meals, or 4 meals every second.
FareShare takes delivery of surplus good-to-eat food, which is unsold or unwanted by the food industry, sorts it in one of its 30 regional warehouses, and passes it onto a network of nearly 11,000 charities and charity groups.
Last year, it helped 163 different organisation across Essex.
They then help vulnerable families and people struggling with unemployment, low income, debt, and homelessness.
The National Picture
FareShare’s annual statistics show it supplied an average of 2,538,276 meals every week to people struggling to get enough to eat in 2020/21, double the amount it redistributed in 2019/20.
Of the 10,542 charities and community groups FareShare supports through its network, nine in ten say they have experienced unprecedented demand for food throughout the pandemic.
Each of these organisations received an average of 5.2 tonnes of food via FareShare - the equivalent of 12,530 meals - 139% more than in 2019/20.
Lindsay Boswell, FareShare’s CEO said: “These figures show the scale of just how many people have been struggling to get enough to eat, during the last year.
"Our warehouses, staff, volunteers and our network of charities have been working flat out, to support the millions of people and families who are going hungry.
"But just because the lockdown is easing, doesn’t mean people won’t still be struggling. Our charities tell us the need is still high, and our work continues.”
Helping the Environment
James Persad, Head of Marketing at FareShare, said: “what many people don’t realise is that food waste is a huge contributor to global warming. It accounts for at least 8% of total global greenhouse gas emissions.
"That’s around three times pre-Covid levels of emissions from the aviation industry. About a third of all the food we produce in the world is wasted each year. In the UK alone more than 2m million tonnes of food is good-to-eat, when it is thrown away, and with people still going hungry, that’s scandalous.
"If the UK is serious about cutting its carbon emissions, reducing food waste must be a big part of that, and FareShare’s Surplus with Purpose scheme can help industry and government lead the way.”