uk ASDA to give all surplus food to charity in bid to relieve food poverty

[Crisp]

ASDA to give all surplus food to charity in bid to relieve food poverty

One of Britain?s biggest supermarkets has resolved to donate all its surplus stock to charity.

Asda announced it would donate surplus food from within its supply chain to FareShare, which redistributes it to charities around the UK, providing meals to some of the 5.8 million people it claims are in living in ?deep poverty? in Britain.

Surplus is produced when a supplier sends a retailer more of a product than is ordered. As the store does not own the product they cannot sell it on so they have to send it back to the supplier ? by which time it is often out of date so has to be thrown away.

In a first for British retail, Asda has committed to diverting all its surplus stock including bread, milk, meat and vegetables, to FareShare.

These donations would equate to more than three million free meals each year, according to a statement published today. That amount of food would provide a saving of ?4.7m to British charities, it was claimed.

Unlike traditional food-banks, where food is handed-out to people in need to take away with them, the food redistributed by FareShare is used by various charities to cook meals for people in need to their services.

The organisation currently provides 42,000 meals a week to 910 charities. In the past year, it has seen a 26 per cent increase in the number of charities turning to them for donations.

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