I’m delighted that the community fridge in Filey, set up last year thanks to the support of the local Lions, is to receive twice weekly donations from Tesco after a nudge from me.
I visited the food waste reduction initiative in October last year, and was surprised to learn that the list of retailers, which include the Co-Op Scarborough Flamborough & Bridlington, Aldi Bridlington and Morrisons Scarborough, did not include Filey’s biggest supermarket and promised to help.
So I wrote to the superstore to ask them to donate food to the local community which would otherwise go to waste and they have agreed to send two donations a week, depending on what is left in store. Millions of meals, which are left on the supermarket shelf, are thrown out every year. It is a scandalous waste so this really is a win-win situation and I am delighted that Tesco has agreed to support the local community in this way.
The community fridge is based in the town’s Murray Street in the community room at Co-Op funeral care staffed by a dedicated team of volunteers and receives donations from local businesses who have a high hygiene rate. The food is then distributed to anyone in the community who needs it or has an interest in reducing food waste.
Dianne Lamb, who runs the service said “This gets 2020 off to a really good start and I’d like to thank Mr Hollinrake for taking this initiative. We welcome all food that’s past its sell-by date but is still in its use by date. No one likes to see food go to waste so it is a really good use of excess food and can make a big difference to some local families”.
Tesco Head of Government Relations, Guy Robinson, said “In 2013, Tesco was the first UK retailer to publish its food waste data and this commitment has seen us reach 81% of our target that no food safe for human consumption should go to waste in our operations. Our new donations to the Filey Community Fridge will further contribute towards this target and it is the latest in a range of initiatives, along with our Community Food Connection programme, which saw us donate the equivalent of 26 million meals to 7,000 charities and community groups last year”.
