Asda has donated £1.4m to set up the ‘All Good Food Fund’, a unique project with FareShare which is hoped will lead to 10 million meals being donated to charities across the country.
As part of the new fund, Asda suppliers will be able to apply for funding to help pay for additional costs; such as labour and transport, making it easier for food to be donated.
This means that good-to-eat surplus food such as fruit, vegetables, eggs, bread; as well as fresh, frozen, ambient and chilled food, which would not have been able to be sold in store can now be redistributed to FareShare and its network of 10,500 charities across the UK.
Surplus food donations from suppliers through the new Asda and FareShare fund will not only serve the needs of local communities across the UK, but will also have an environmental impact. Each tonne of food that FareShare UK redistributes prevents the waste of an average of 1.6 tonnes of embedded CO2e.
Asda also partners with FareShare through a back of store donation scheme, which in 2021 saw stores, depots and Asda’s home office donate enough surplus food to make the equivalent of 6.6 million meals and is part of the supermarket’s commitment to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030.
Kloe Tegg, Better Starts Manager at Asda said: “Like our customers we are passionate about reducing food waste and helping people in our local communities. This investment will give our suppliers the capability to do both and make sure the food they produce, sold or not is not wasted and goes to those who need it most.”
Lindsay Boswell, CEO, FareShare said: “We’re hugely grateful for Asda’s ongoing support. The All Good Food Fund enables us to step up our support for the food industry. The funding will be instrumental in making sure companies can quickly and safely divert their surplus to frontline charities, in a cost effective way. We’re keen to hear from businesses who are looking to develop individual solutions to unlock access to surplus that has previously been seen as harder to reach.”