COMPASS GROUP UK & Ireland has joined forces with FareShare – a charity organisation dedicated to fighting hunger and tackling food waste in the UK.
This partnership will see Compass Group UK & Ireland work with its supply chain distribution partner Brakes to provide FareShare with good, in-date food that can no longer be sold to customers. Surplus food includes discontinued lines, food with out of date packaging due to promotions that have finished; all fit for purpose products that are now going to a worthy cause.
FareShare redistributes good quality food from the food industry to over 1,300 charities and community organisations across 20 regions, covering more than 137 towns and cities in the UK. Last year, FareShare redistributed 5,500 tonnes of food which contributed towards one million meals per month, benefiting 62,200 people every day.
Dennis Hogan, Managing Director, Compass Group UK & Ireland said: “As a business, we are committed to growing sustainably, supporting organisations like FareShare who are making a real difference in local communities and tackling key environmental challenges at the same time.”
Reducing waste is at the heart of Compass Group UK & Ireland’s corporate responsibility strategy. It signed up to the Hospitality and Foodservice Agreement in 2012, committing to working with WRAP, a not for profit that helps other organisations reap the benefits of reducing waste, develop sustainable products and use resources in an efficient way, in order to achieve collective environmental targets for the industry. Compass sites also use a dedicated waste management system, ensuring the ongoing monitoring and reduction of food waste across the business.
As part of this ongoing commitment, Compass Group UK & Ireland championed a national industry-wide initiative called ‘Working on Waste’ last month. Organised by the IGD, a charity that helps the food and consumer goods industry deliver the needs of the public, the initiative is run in collaboration with Love Food Hate Waste, with the aim of reducing household food waste, which costs the average household up to £700 a year.
Throughout October Compass ran a range of activities as part of the ‘Working on Waste’ initiative. Compass colleagues took part in free seminars about how to avoid waste and save money at home, they also received rescue recipes, meal planners, top tips and took part in a top tip competition to share ideas on waste reduction.
