Defra has announced today that it is offering grants totalling £13.6 million to 12 food charities across England – including City Harvest, Food in Community and FareShare – to redistribute an estimated 19,000 tonnes of food directly from farms to help families and fight food poverty in communities.
Community kitchens, food banks, shelters and cookery projects across the country are all set to receive food through these organisations thanks to the grant scheme.
It follows the establishments of an independent Circular Economy Taskforce to tackle the nation’s throwaway approach.
Commenting on the grants, David Gudgeon, head of external affairs at Reconomy Connect, a brand by international circular economy specialists Reconomy, said: “We’re very pleased to see Defra tackling food waste through these grants, which rightly prioritise redistribution in line with the food waste hierarchy and will help to ensure that high-quality, surplus food is used to feed people first.
“Initiatives like this not only offer vital support to families facing food insecurity, but also help to retain the highest possible value from our food system, preventing fresh, nutritious produce from going to waste unnecessarily.
“Closing the circularity gap requires urgent, practical steps to keep resources in use for longer, and food surplus redistribution is a powerful example of this principle in action. As we shift away from a throwaway culture, it’s encouraging to see greater alignment between environmental sustainability and social impact, and we hope Defra will consider more action like this to turbocharge circularity in the food production sector.”
