Morrisons to provide two million meals to thousands of families in need

The Bradford-based grocer said quality food including fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, bread and prepared food will be included in the redistributed meals, equating to 800 tonnes of food that would have otherwise gone to waste.

The initiative is in partnership with food redistribution charity, The Bread and Butter Thing (TBBT), which will hand out the surplus food to 30,000 families in need.

Recent research conducted by the charity revealed that 80 per cent of adults receiving food from its scheme are skipping meals themselves to feed their families.

Food factories are the second highest source of food waste after households, according to the food waste charity, WRAP. This happens because of overproduction, imperfections, mis-labelling or because the food runs out of shelf life.

During 2021, Morrisons plans to redistribute surplus food to 30,000 families in need through TBBT. Morrisons partnership with TBBT was set up in 2016 and has so far provided 2 million meals to its members.

Morrisons' support will enable the charity to expand nationally to 100 locations by the start of 2022.

Steven Butts, head of corporate responsibility at Morrisons, said: “Reducing food waste is important to our customers, colleagues and shareholders.

"We’ve made very strong progress in reducing waste in our supermarkets over many years. But there is still more to do behind the scenes and this extension of our partnership with TBBT will mean that they can do even more for families around the UK while at the same time helping us further reduce wasted food."

Mark Game, CEO of TBBT, said: "We've all faced enormous challenges this year and we could not have done it without Morrisons' continued support and the heroic efforts of its team to keep its surplus food coming to us in addition to feeding the nation during this tumultuous time.

"I'm enormously grateful to Morrisons and all its staff for helping us to keep our members fed with quality, nutritious food which, for a whole variety of reasons, couldn't be sold.

"We work in some of the UK's most deprived communities. The financial savings for people using our service are significant, people eat better quality and a bigger variety of food, and we save tonnes of surplus edible food from going to waste. It's a win/win solution for everyone. Morrisons have been a major supporter since our launch in 2016, and I'm excited that this new, extended partnership will enable us to grow nationwide.”

Morrisons has pledged to reduce operational food waste by 50 per cent by 2030. To date the supermarket has launched the biggest Wonky fruit and veg range, has donated surplus food from every store, and offers boxes of veg, bakery and deli items for just £3.09 via the Too Good to Go App. Since 2015 Morrisons stores have also given surplus food to local good causes - totalling 3.5 tonnes last year.

Morrisons has 18 of its own food making sites - preparing meat, fruit, vegetables, fish, bakery and fresh food products, plus six distribution centres.

The supermarket is the largest fresh food manufacturer in the UK, and makes more than half of the fresh food sold in its stores.