https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jan/24/tesco-teams-up-with-charity-to-tackle-food-waste?CMP=share_btn_tw

Tesco teams up with charity to tackle food waste

Jamie Oliver backs food redistribution charity FareShare in training cooks in how to use unwanted food

Rebecca SmithersConsumer affairs correspondent

Thu 24 Jan 2019 06.01 GMT

Shares

564

 The government estimates 100,000 tonnes of edibe food goes uneaten and is thrown away every year. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian

A national cookery school and programme to help train UK “community cooks” in how best to turn surplus food into healthy meals – and prevent edible food going to waste – is to be launched.

The latest initiative to tackle the UK’s food waste mountain comes from the UK’s largest supermarket, Tesco, in partnership with the national food redistribution charity FareShare, with input and backing from the celebrity chef and health campaigner Jamie Oliver.

FareShare redistributes food that would otherwise go to waste – donated by Tesco and other supermarkets – to charities and community groups, including homeless shelters, children’s breakfast clubs, and domestic violence refuges. These turn the food into nutritious meals and provide support for vulnerable people.

Currently about 43,000 tonnes of surplus food is redistributed from retailers and food manufacturers every year, the government says. But it estimates a further 100,000 tonnes of food – equating to 250m meals a year – is edible and readily available but goes uneaten and thrown away.

There are more than 1,000 UK community cooks working in local authorities and charities but who face the challenge of how to make the most of unusual or unexpected ingredients and large quantities of fresh seasonal produce. Tesco’s development chefs have worked with Jamie Oliver to produce nutritionally balanced recipes.

“It’s fantastic to join the work that Tesco and FareShare are doing to reduce food waste,” said Jamie Oliver. “I’ve written these recipes to arm all those amazing community cooks with the tools to create something delicious and balanced for people who need it the most.”

The FareShare, chief executive, Lindsey Boswell said: “With Tesco’s support, FareShare is working with charities across the country to help feed hundreds of thousands of people in need every week. Most of these charities provide meals made by community cooks, who may already have lots of experience and just need some new ideas; or they could do with a really good grounding in nutrition and the scaling up of meals.”

MPs recently urged the government to appoint a minister for hunger in a new report which warned that nearly two million people in the UK may be undernourished.

The government recently appointed a “food waste champion” in an attempt to eliminate food waste going to landfill by 2030.