Food industry comes together to fight hunger in the UK

• Let’s make a meal of it campaign will run nationwide in April 
• Millions of customers will be able to donate at M&S, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose
• Every £1 raised will provide 5 meals for people facing hunger 
• The food industry is also embarking on a groundbreaking project led by Sainsbury’s to use spare capacity in lorries to get food to charities   

Eleven million people go hungry in the UK, three million of them children. Yet redistribution charities trying to tackle this hunger face two main challenges: 

1. They need more food to keep up with demand. 
2. Transportation of the food remains a significant cost burden.

The food industry is joining forces to help address both of these issues at scale, through a pioneering coalition, called Alliance Food Sourcing (AFS), which was created as part of the Coronation Food Project. Fifty leading food businesses are already involved.

The food businesses are investing, in two ways: to secure more sources of food for frontline charities, and by innovating to save transportation costs for charities, using spare capacity in lorries.

Securing new sources of food for charities:

AFS focuses on the 4.6 million tonnes of food that goes to waste across the food supply chain every year, before it even reaches people's plates, for example when packaging is defective or when switching over production runs. So much of this food is edible and can be rescued and recovered for people in need.

Currently, much of the surplus food in the supply chain is in large or unpackaged formats that are not easily usable by charities. So the businesses involved in AFS are investing in new partnerships and processes to rescue the surplus food

For example, by repackaging bulk quantities or bringing raw ingredients together to make meals. Where packaging is defective, ingredients are salvaged, and surplus food is rescued when production lines are switched over. The coalition is also focusing on categories where the charity need is greatest – vegetables, protein and staples. 

Sweet potato and squash ‘rubble’ is produced during the dicing process. Supplier, Barfoot’s, has found a way to recover it from their production lines, contributing to 40,000 meals per month. Morrisons and Myton Food Group have made small changes to their grading process meaning that 150 tonnes a year of fresh fruit and veg can now be redirected to charities.  

2 Sisters Food Group have secured two million portions of fresh and frozen chicken per year, following a relabelling and repacking collaboration. It has also partnered with M&S to produce more than 1.5 million pizzas and ready meals, using surplus line capacity. Tesco has worked with Samworth Brothers to produce half a million cottage pie meals and Sainsbury’s has partnered with Greencore to supply one million extra ready meals, also using spare factory capacity. And Premier Foods has changed its processes so that it is now recovering and rescuing dried noodles that otherwise would have gone to waste.

Supplier, Charlie Bighams is capturing surplus sauces for catering charities, at the end of each production run. And Waitrose and their pasta supplier, Daybreak, are now rescuing the surplus pasta, when machines switch between cutting different shapes, contributing to 300,000 meals for charities. 

Because the surplus food rescued all comes from the supply chain, it can be distributed to charities much more efficiently, and with a longer shelf life. 

The AFS coalition has already provided over 10 million meals through such innovations, giving frontline charities a more predictable and regular source of food. Its ambition is to get more food businesses on board and provide 30 million meals a year by 2028. 

Using spare lorry capacity to transport food and reduce charities’ costs:

It’s not only about securing new sources of food. In a first of its kind project delivered through AFS, Sainsbury’s has come together with logistics provider, GXO, and supply chain specialists, Baringa, to radically reduce the cost of transporting food to charities. Supported by technical advice from Tesco Distribution team, this cross-industry collaboration is designed to enhance the long-term logistics capabilities of the charity sector. Studies suggest that 30% of all UK HGV miles have spare capacity. The initiative taps into this, to move much needed surplus food from warehouses to frontline charities.  Dubbed “speed dating for trucks”, the combined tech solution and logistics collaboration, has the potential to save charities millions of pounds in the future.

Joint fundraising campaign:

Customers will be able to play their part in tackling UK hunger too. Despite the supermarket sector being highly competitive, five retailers will partner up to a launch a single campaign Let’s make a meal of it across April. 

M&S, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose will hand the campaign baton to one another over the month, encouraging millions of customers to donate online or round-up at till in store. 
Every £1 raised will provide five meals for people who need them. And all the money donated will go to The Felix Project and FareShare which works with over 8000 frontline charities and community groups across the UK.  

It will be spent on sourcing and redistributing meals from surplus food, identified by AFS. Beneficiaries will include children who’ll receive a hot meal at youth clubs during the school holidays or people experiencing loneliness who can meet others over a shared meal.

Gordon Gafa, Managing Director of UK Food at Tesco, said: “We’re happy to be supporting the ‘Let's make a meal of it’ campaign for a second year, in collaboration with our fellow retailers. The money raised last year helped to provide more than 1.5 million meals to charities, so we look forward to seeing the impact of the campaign this year.”

Alex Freudmann, Managing Director of Food at M&S said: “The AFS project plays a unique role in joining industry together to redistribute food in the supply chain to families who need it. We are grateful to our customers for joining us in donating towards this project in our stores in April and are continuing to work with AFS to find new ways to make sure good food never goes to waste.”

Tom Denyard, Managing Director of Waitrose, said: “We are absolutely committed to tackling food waste and food insecurity. Through the generosity of our customers and by working together with the AFS coalition and our suppliers to turn surplus into support, we can continue to make a real difference in our communities.”

Rami Baitiéh, CEO of Morrisons, said: "We are committed to tackling food waste wherever it arises and are delighted to join this important industry initiative to rescue and redistribute surplus food to people in need."

Charlotte Hill, CEO of The Felix Project and FareShare, said: “The Felix Project and FareShare already support 1.5 million people, yet we know there are millions more in need of our help. This campaign is an amazing example of how the sector can come together and make a huge difference. I hope as many people as possible show their support and help us continue to innovate, rescue more food and support more communities and people in need.”

Nicky Robinson, Director of Alliance Food Sourcing, said: “It’s great to see so many leading food businesses coming together within AFS, but we urge others to join us. The opportunity to do good is vast. By partnering up, thousands of tonnes of good, surplus food are already being rescued from the food supply chain, reducing waste and providing meals for the most vulnerable in our society - often by making relatively simple changes.”

Paul Bains, Supply Manager at The Felix Project and FareShare said: “The AFS programme gives us the rare opportunity to plan as we know what volumes we’ll be receiving - we don’t usually get that level of visibility - and it has a much longer shelf life than the surplus food we primarily work with.” 

Clare O'Keeffe, FareShare, Scotland said: “We’ve seen a real increase in surplus chicken and fresh produce coming into our charity network. The AFS project has not only increased the volume of good quality food available, but has also improved the consistency of the supply.”

Editors’ notes

The Alliance Food Sourcing coalition is led by IGD (the Institute of Grocery Distribution), The Felix Project and FareShare. Born out of the Coronation Food Project, inspired by King Charles, AFS brings together supermarkets, suppliers, logistics providers and charities to find joint solutions to the challenges of hunger and waste.

The Felix Project and FareShare is the UK’s leading food redistribution charity, made up of the two separate organisations. It was announced in 2025 that the two would come together to form a bigger and bolder organisation with greater reach and impact. The charity continues to rescue good-to-eat surplus food, that cannot be sold and would otherwise go to waste, from across the food industry and get it to over 8,000 organisations across the UK who are helping to feed people experiencing food insecurity. It manages seven depots and works with 16 network partners that manage 35 depots across the UK. In the last financial year, 2024-25, FareShare redistributed the equivalent of over 148 million meals, reaching people in every corner of the UK. The new name and brand will be announced in due course. For more information visit  www.fareshare.org.uk and www.thefelixproject.org