Compass redistributes 257,000 meals worth of surplus food

Compass Group UK & Ireland has announced that over the past year it has diverted 109 tonnes of food, which is the equivalent of around 257,000 meals worth of surplus food, to organisations including FareShare, Olio, Too Good To Go and local charities.

Working with FareShare since 2014, Compass has saved an estimated 977,884 meals (as of March 2023) with much of the food donated being surplus and end of range. FareShare reallocates food from the food industry, turning it into meals for charities and community groups. Combining donations to the organisations throughout the partnerships, Compass has now redistributed over one million meals.

FareShare supports hundreds of charities, helping people across the UK through projects like community centres and community cafes. 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. Compass Ireland also donated over €5000 worth of food to charities in the past year.

Simon Millard, FareShare’s Food Director, commented: “We rely on organisations like Compass to provide much-needed food to our network of 9,500 charities across the UK. This reduces food going to waste and also provides essential support to communities during the cost of living crisis. Never has our work been so vital.”

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 This means Compass will now report on food waste across five categories: out of date; plate; post-production; pre-production; and retail.

Stop Food Waste Day was launched by Compass Group USA in 2017 – it’s seventh annual event took place on 26 April, inspiring action throughout Compass and beyond.

Ashleigh Taylor, Head of Environment, Compass Group UK & Ireland, said: “Stop Food Waste Day is a great platform for us to raise awareness of this important issue – but it is so much more than one day and it’s our focus to tackle this problem and create a real impact in driving forward the agenda. It’s great to see action across our business, but what I love most is that we’re seeing suppliers, customers, colleagues and businesses around the globe support this initiative.”