Four major supermarkets are joining forces for a new food poverty campaign in what they claim is an “unparalleled” collaboration, The Grocer can reveal.
Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose will next week launch the campaign, called Let’s Make a Meal of It, which will allow their millions of customers to donate funds to people facing hunger, online and at checkouts.
Supermarket bosses said despite the “highly competitive” nature of the industry, they had decided to come together to fight food poverty under one banner with the campaign, with talks already underway for it to be rolled out to more supermarkets next year. They are expected to continue with their own individual food poverty and food waste campaigns in addition.
Every £1 raised in the two weeks from Monday will provide five meals for people facing hunger, with funds to go to food redistribution body FareShare.
Royal backing
The campaign has been co-ordinated by the new Alliance Food Sourcing operation launched in November by supermarkets and food manufacturers in response to King Charles’ Coronation Food Project.
Run by IGD, FareShare and The Felix Project, the body has been seeking to bring about a step-change in collaboration across the supply chain to fight food poverty. The Let’s Make a Meal of It campaign is set to act as the most public-facing element of the work, which is also looking to co-ordinate ways to free up food surplus across the supply chain with more co-operation across the industry.
The new campaign comes with the latest figures from the Food Foundation suggesting one in seven people go hungry in the UK, with 2.7 million of them children. Demand for meals is increasing each year.
FareShare works with 8,000 frontline charities and community groups across the UK. The money raised will be translated into surplus food, identified and secured by AFS initiatives, to make meals for charities.
The campaign this year will run online and at till for Tesco and Sainsbury’s and online for Waitrose and Morrisons. All the supermarkets have promised to raise awareness with their colleagues and via their social media channels, which will include an online weblink to donate to.
Beneficiaries will include youth clubs and people experiencing loneliness and isolation.
A collaborative breakthrough
Alliance Food Sourcing said it expected supermarkets to continue to run their own established campaigns to help fight hunger but talks to expand the new campaign with other supermarkets are already ongoing.
“This is a breakthrough for the UK food industry to be working together in this way to tackle food poverty and just shows what is possible in delivering real and positive change,” said Simon Roberts, CEO of Sainsbury’s and president of the IGD.
Matthew Barnes, UK CEO of Tesco, added: “We are excited to support the Let’s Make a Meal of It campaign and strengthen our partnership with FareShare.
“Collaboration is key to addressing food insecurity, and we are happy to partner on this with the other retailers.”
Morrisons CEO Rami Baitiéh said: “As a food retailer and manufacturer, we are committed to tackling food waste from field to fork.
“We want to help eradicate food poverty and are delighted to play our part in this industry initiative to redistribute surplus food to people in need.”
Waitrose executive director James Bailey: “We are proud to be part of Alliance Food Sourcing to reduce food waste while tackling food insecurity. Working with our suppliers, we’re helping to divert surplus from our supply chain that would otherwise be wasted, to get good, nutritious food to people in need.”
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