Press Release: Food Waste Letter to PM
/MP Steps Up Support for Food Waste Campaign
Alan Brown MP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun has written to the Prime Minister, calling on the government to take urgent action on food waste.
Two million tonnes of fresh, unsold food is wasted in the UK every year. Funding to help farmers and food producers get this food to frontline charities has now ended. If the funding were to be extended, it could create an additional 53m meals for vulnerable families. Without it, the food will be needlessly wasted – thrown into biogas digesters, sent to landfill or simply ploughed back into the fields.
The letter is part of the #FoodOnPlates campaign, run by FareShare, the UK’s largest food redistribution charity. They are calling on the government to commit to vital food waste funding ahead of next week’s Comprehensive Spending Review.
In Kilmarnock and Loudoun last year, FareShare redistributed the equivalent of 369,100 meals via 20 local organisations. This funding would enable them to nearly double the amount of food that they could provide to people across the UK, through saving surplus food.
Alan Brown MP said: “Voluntary organisations in Kilmarnock and Loudoun have worked incredibly hard during the pandemic. It is vital that we get more food to them, to aid them in their work in our community.
“Good, healthy food should not be going to waste from growers and producers in the UK, when it could be used to feed those who need it. By delivering this letter, we have got this important message to the heart of government. I hope that in the Spending Review next week, the government allocates this lifeline funding which would result in significant environmental, social and economic benefits.”
The letter, signed by 53 MPs representing both sides of the house, calls for £5m a year to offset the costs of redistributing food from farmers and businesses to charities. This will help the UK mitigate 124,378 tonnes of carbon.
FareShare CEO Lindsay Boswell, said: “In 2019, the Government demonstrated a bold commitment to tackling food waste, with a successful trial that diverted millions of meals’ worth of great quality food from British farms to frontline charities providing care and support to vulnerable families.
“With just over a week until the Comprehensive Spending Review and two weeks until COP, we urge the Government to once again show leadership on this issue and commit to extending vital funding to get in-date, nutritious food onto people’s plates.”
