Melton groups invited to apply for free food surplus from Tesco this Easter

Across the UK the supermarket distributes a million meals a month to good causes as part of its Community Food Connection scheme, run in conjunction with food charity FareShare and powered by FoodCloud technology.

Now, local groups in the borough and in Melton are being invited to apply for food surplus.

Community Food Connection enables some 7,000 charities and community groups to pick up free food from Tesco each week, but some of those groups take a break during school holidays, which means Tesco can offer free surplus food to even more organisations over Easter.

“We know that there are some charities that may offer holiday clubs, or groups that put on special events over the Easter holidays, and it is exactly those sort of groups that we want to hear from,” said Alec Brown, head of community at Tesco.

“Whatever time of year it is, we would much rather that unsold food is put to good use in the community, and feeds people first, rather than going to waste.”

The free food includes fresh produce such as fruit, vegetables and bakery products and chilled food like meat, cheese and ready meals. Groups registered with the Community Food Connection are given scheduled collection days and receive a text alert to tell them what food is available. They can then choose what they want from the surplus food on offer.

If you are a charity or community group that could benefit from the support of Community Food Connection, visit www.fareshare.org.uk/fareshare-go to register.