UK Supermarkets launch joint drive to channel surplus food to charities
Major retailers coordinate national campaign to turn manufacturing surplus into meals for vulnerable communities
UK – A group of leading UK supermarkets, including M&S, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, and Waitrose, has launched a coordinated fundraising and food recovery initiative in April aimed at increasing the flow of surplus food to charities through the Alliance Food Sourcing (AFS) coalition.
The campaign comes as the coalition continues to address the scale of waste across the UK food system, where about 4.6 million tonnes of food is lost annually due to factors such as packaging faults, production changes, and supply chain adjustments.
Food redistribution efforts expand across supply chains
Much of the challenge has been linked to surplus food being produced in bulk or unpackaged forms that are difficult for charities to distribute directly, prompting industry players to redesign handling and repackaging systems to make donations more usable.
Under the AFS framework, manufacturers and retailers have started converting excess ingredients into prepared meals, with partnerships such as M&S working with 2 Sisters Food Group on pizzas and ready meals, while Tesco and Sainsbury’s collaborate on products including cottage pies and similar dishes.
Further initiatives have focused on production waste streams, including Barfoot recovering sweet potato and squash remnants, Premier Foods capturing dried noodle waste, Waitrose working with Daybreak to reuse pasta offcuts, Charlie Bighams diverting surplus sauces to charities, and Morrisons with Myton Food Group adjusting grading processes to redirect about 150 tonnes of fresh produce annually.
Coordinated industry planning and future targets
The Felix Project and FareShare have said the programme improves planning for charities because it provides more predictable supply volumes and longer shelf-life products compared with traditional surplus donations.
AFS has set a target of recovering the equivalent of 30 million meals each year from manufacturing by 2028, up from more than 14 million meals already secured through ongoing participation from food businesses.
The April fundraising drive, branded “Let’s make a meal of it,” rotates across the participating supermarkets and encourages customers to donate in-store and online to support food redistribution efforts.
Each £1 (US$1.25) raised is expected to fund around five meals, with proceeds managed through FareShare and The Felix Project, which collectively work with about 8,000 community organisations across the UK to distribute food to children, community groups, and people facing isolation.
Industry representatives including Sainsbury’s chief executive Simon Roberts and AFS programme leaders have pointed to continued collaboration between competing retailers as a way of increasing access to surplus food at scale while addressing rising levels of food insecurity, with estimates indicating around 11 million people in the UK currently face difficulties accessing sufficient food.
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