Big name supermarket chains are working together to give shoppers an additional payment option at the checkout. Tesco self service till users won’t be new to the concept of being given the opportunity to round-up the cost of their shop but as part of a new campaign it is teaming up with Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, and Waitrose to make a donation to the ‘Let’s make a meal of it’ campaign over the next week.
The campaign will run in Waitrose and Morrisons online, and in Tesco and Sainsbury’s online and in stores. Every penny gathered at the tills will go to FareShare, the UK’s leading food distribution charity, and every £1 raised will provide five meals for people facing hunger.
Children attending youth clubs, along with individuals facing isolation, stand to benefit from the provision of hot meals and community dining opportunities established by this effort, reports the Manchester Evening News. As part of the initiative, a new coalition called Alliance Food Sourcing will work to bring together supermarkets, suppliers, logistics providers and charities to help tackle food waste.
This comes in response to estimates made that 4.6 million tonnes of edible food goes to waste across the food supply chain every year. The group will focus in food that it thrown away before reaching the shop and will include turning vegetable cut-offs into soups, packaging leftover sauce into large bags for community kitchens, and using surplus flour and sugar to make biscuits.
Rami Baitiéh, CEO of Morrisons, said: “As a food retailer and manufacturer, we are committed to tackling food waste from field to fork. We want to help eradicate food poverty and are delighted to play our part in this industry initiative to redistribute surplus food to people in need.”
James Bailey, Managing Director of Waitrose & Partners, said: “We are proud to be part of Alliance Food Sourcing to reduce food waste while tackling food insecurity. Working with our suppliers, we’re helping to divert surplus from our supply chain that would otherwise be wasted, to get good, nutritious food to people in need.”
Shoppers who wish to donate will be able to round-up the cost of their shop at the till, or can donate through visiting the FareShare website.
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