Putting Good Food to Good Use in the UK

Big Ben. Fish and chips. “The Tube.”

The United Kingdom is known for all of these (jolly good) things, and much more.

But one thing few people know about is the level of hunger that exists across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In fact, in the UK, one in eight people go hungry every day.

Yet 163,000 pounds of perfectly good food is wasted every day in Britain.

At General Mills, we believe that all food should be eaten, and that taking a lead role in surplus food recovery is a business, moral and sustainability imperative.

Through the General Mills Foundation, we provide philanthropic support to FareShare, which has pioneered surplus food redistribution in the UK for the last 25 years. FareShare’s network of food redistribution depots, and FareShare GO – which connects charities with supermarkets such as Tesco, Asda and Waitrose stores to collect end-of-day surplus – provides food to more than 10,000 charities and community organizations in 1,500 towns and cities to help feed more than 700,000 people each week.

Learn how FareShare works in this video.

“By supporting FareShare through our philanthropy, product donations and employee volunteerism, we are doing what we can to make a real difference in this issue that affects people and planet,” says Jonathan Bennett, external relations director, General Mills Northern Europe. “Our actions are aimed at ensuring the world’s good surplus food is used to nourish hungry people rather than going to landfills.”

With support from General Mills, FareShare recovered enough surplus food to help enable 30 million meals for hungry people last year alone.

“Magic happens when big business and charity work in harmony,” says Lindsay Boswell, CEO of FareShare.“This is when a big difference can be made. Our partnership redistributing surplus food and support with funding and volunteerism from General Mills is an outstanding example of what can be achieved when everyone is focused on generating the greatest impact they can.”