Compagnie Fruitière UK Limited (CFUK) started working with FareShare in August 2019 after hearing about the FareShare Surplus with Purpose Fund. The funding has now enabled them to transport their surplus bananas to our Regional Centres, where they will be redistributed to frontline charities.
Previously, this surplus had been going to anaerobic digestion, as, due to the volumes and additional costs involved it was not possible for CFUK to divert the edible bananas to good causes.
Thanks to funding from FareShare’s Surplus with Purpose Fund CFUK’s own haulage sub-contractors are now diverting food to FareShare Regional centres, and a small process change in the CFUK production facility at Dartford has been introduced to support the collection of suitable volume of surplus product.
FareShare sees a huge demand for fresh fruit and veg from the 11,000 charities we support, and bananas have previously proved difficult to distribute due to the transport limitations involved. Working with CFUK has meant that we’ve been able to divert nearly 4 tonnes of bananas – enough to contribute towards 8,400 meals.
Nick Blanchard, Lean Manager at Compagnie Fruitière UK Limited on the process changes that have been put in place as a result of working with FareShare:
“We found that the implementation of the new process was made easier because our employees wanted to do more to support local communities and those in need. We publicise the results of our efforts via noticeboards and the company newsletter and the change has now become part of ‘Business as Usual’ for CFUK; we expect it to continue for the foreseeable future.”
If you are a food business with surplus food, visit our giving food page, contact foodoffers@fareshare.org.uk
