How we’re reducing Food Waste & helping your community

Co-op has been committed to reducing Food Waste for some time, initially through their partnership with Fareshare now more than ever following the introduction of their Food Share scheme in May 2018.

I run an emergency food bank called Charity Without Borders which helps support the homeless, vulnerable people and those suffering from poverty in the Mansfield area.

Though there are a number of food initiatives to get involved with, I decided to go with the Co-op because I liked the idea of the ethical approach the Co-op has with its suppliers and manufacturers e.g. Fairtrade.

The store managers in my local Co-ops have all been extremely welcoming and they’ve also allowed me to place Food Bank Bins in each store.

This is why I believe Food Share works well because it focuses on personal relationships between store managers, colleagues and people like myself who collect the unsold food on behalf of local causes.

As a result, the time which I collect the food from the store is flexible, unlike some similar schemes, furthermore, there is no cost involved with regards to the scheme membership either.

Thanks to this relationship with Co-op, on the 7th January this year ‘Charity Without Borders’ was proud to have made its 1000th donation to the Soup Kitchen in Mansfield, 729 of all those donations have included food collected from local Co-op stores.