It is the first Tesco store in Wales, and one of 12 Tesco stores across the UK, to have donated 100,000 meals-worth of food through the supermarket’s Community Food Connection Scheme, run in conjunction with leading food charity FareShare.
Tesco recently marked the fourth anniversary of the scheme, which has now provided more than 38 million meals-worth of food that would otherwise have gone to waste to charities and community groups across the UK.
Food from the Culverhouse Cross store has helped to support a variety of local charities and good causes, including Splott Community Volunteers, Pentrebane Zone, and Action in Caerau and Ely.
Angela Bullard from Splott Community Volunteers said the food donated by the store had made a real difference to their work.
“The staff at Culverhouse Cross have always been so friendly and helpful since we first started collecting the surplus food donated from Tesco,” she said. “The donations enable us to provide a hot meal and a bag of food to cook at home for those in need in our community and any excess food is given to another local charity.
“By holding our Community Breakfast Club, we are also able to provide volunteering opportunities for people who need a purpose as they struggle to overcome their own challenging life issues. The benefits are complex and diverse and community spirit is much improved as a result. We cannot thank Tesco at Culverhouse Cross enough for their continued support and for being such champions of the Fareshare cause.”
Tesco’s Head of Community Alec Brown congratulated colleagues at the Cardiff store for helping to make the scheme such a success.
“Community Food Connection has gone from strength to strength over the past four years,” he said. “We have rolled out the scheme to all of our 2,600-plus stores and the fact that our Cardiff store has now donated 100,000 meals-worth of food shows the difference the scheme can make.
“Their efforts mean that more than 40 tonnes of food that would otherwise have gone to waste has instead gone to help feed people through the amazing work of community groups and charities here in Cardiff.
“The success of the scheme has helped us to significantly reduce the food waste from our stores and we want to make sure even more of our food surplus goes to charity and community groups in the year ahead.”
FareShare Chief Executive Linsday Boswell also congratulated the store on donating so many meals through the scheme.
“Around a third of all the food that is grown in the world goes to waste, so we are proud of our partnership with Tesco, which has allowed us to divert thousands of tonnes of food to feed people rather than going to waste,” he said.
“At FareShare we work closely with some 7,000 groups that now receive surplus food from Tesco, and our community coordinators see week-in week-out the difference that the surplus food us making in settings such as community centres, pensioners’ lunch clubs, groups helping the homeless and children’s breakfast clubs. The Culverhouse Cross Extra store is a great example of how the scheme can both tackle food waste and provide food to support the work of groups who are at the heart of their local community.”
For more details of Community Food Connection visit: https://sustainability.tescoplc.com/sustainability/food-waste/topics/own-operations/community-food-connection/
