A supermarket chain wants more charities and community groups to join a food delivery scheme which tackles food wastage across the UK.


Tesco says charity groups in Harrow can sign up to receive extra food for their service users from its Community Food Connection scheme.


The scheme aims to distribute fresh produce including fruit, baked goods and chilled products that would have otherwise gone to waste through a collective effort. 


By registering online, various groups can receive extra food from their local Tesco store. Usually, they will receive a text to alert them what food is available.


The scheme is run in conjunction with FareShare, the largest food redistribution charity in the UK, and FoodCloud a digital platform which enables businesses to donate surplus in-date food to various charities. 


Tesco’s head of community, Alec Brown, said: “Community Food Connection is making a real difference in communities across the UK, but we know there are more groups that could receive food from the scheme.”


Almost 7,000 charities in the UK currently benefit from the initiative, including lunch clubs, schools and charities working with homeless people, and drug and alcohol rehab centres. 


Lindsay Boswell, chief executive of FareShare, said: “We support many amazing frontline charities which use in date surplus food from Tesco at store level to feed thousands of vulnerable people.”


Registration can take 6 -8 weeks. Tesco and FareShare have worked in partnership on Community Food Connection for the last three years and won the Sustainable Futures Award for the initiative in 2016.


Interested charity groups should register at www.fareshare.org.uk/fareshare-go