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FareShare and Compass Group UK & Ireland, alongside its procurement business, Foodbuy, have worked together to redistribute the equivalent of one million meals to FareShare’s network of 8,500 charities and community groups.
Working with FareShare since 2014, Compass and Foodbuy have now supported an estimated 3,214 charities all over the UK. These charities provide vital services to people facing food insecurity as well as wraparound services such as debt advice, mental health support and groups for young people and the elderly.
With much of the food being surplus, that might have otherwise gone to waste, donations include items ranging from cheese to ready meals, as well as fresh fruit and bread.
Simon Millard, Food Director, FareShare, commented: “We are so grateful to Compass and Foodbuy for their support over the years. The high-quality food that we consistently receive is always welcomed with open arms by the charities that FareShare supports.”
Ashleigh Taylor, Head of Environment, Compass Group UK & Ireland, said: “We always work to avoid food waste, but redistribution is a vital tool for us when waste can’t be helped. Our longstanding partnership with FareShare is a great example of success and I am so pleased that our work together has helped so many charities and people.”
In October 2022, Compass Scotland also announced it had set up a separate partnership across its sites to support the charity. Compass Cymru works closely with FareShare Cymru, and Compass Ireland has donated over €5,000 worth of food to charities in the past year.
Tackling food waste is an important part of Compass Group UK & Ireland’s Climate Net Zero by 2030 ambition, which includes a commitment to halve food waste. Compass’ teams across the business aim to stop food waste through preventing, recovering and recycling. Only when food waste is unavoidable, do teams turn to redistribution and recycling.
At site level Compass has committed to the roll out of its food waste recording system, which supports the accurate measurement and reduction of waste. To understand why and how it occurs, the system has now evolved to show which stages of foodservice produce the most waste, to create specific and targeted interventions. This means Compass will now report on food waste across five categories: out of date; plate; post-production; pre-production; and retail.
Compass Group also created the initiative Stop Food Waste Day, which aims to raise awareness and share solutions around this important issue.
