According to WRAP research two million tonnes of fresh unsold food is wasted in farms and factories every year instead of being sent to charities who support families experiencing food poverty.
Landmark funding that enabled farmers to redistribute this unsold food to frontline charities ended after just one year – and calls to renew it have been rejected.
The stunt was part of FareShare’s #FoodOnPlates campaign that urged the government to continue and extend the funding. Without it FareShare predicts 53 million meals worth of food will be wasted every year.
At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, FareShare distributed over 130 million meals to frontline charities and community groups supporting the most vulnerable – thanks to a campaign with ambassador Marcus Rashford MBE.
Lindsay Boswell, chief executive of FareShare, said: “We can’t stand by and watch good, nutritious food rot in our fields while children and families go hungry.
“France manages to get 6x more unsold food to charities, yet, here in the UK, farmers are being forced to waste it. Globally, food waste is a huge environmental problem. If food waste were a country it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter after China and the USA.
“That’s why, on The International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, and ahead of COP26, we’re calling on the government to show leadership on this important issue and reinstate this vital funding to get food onto people’s plates.”
MPs are being asked to support the campaign online (www.foodonplates.org), which has been shared by chefs Tom Kerridge, Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall and Prue Leith on Twitter.
Kerridge added: “Wasting food is always wrong, but on this level it’s a scandal. If farmers and food producers aren’t able to sell their food it should be going to the frontline charities who are crying out for it, not being dumped back in to the ground.”