city harvest

Whole Foods Market is joining forces with the City Harvest charity to tackle food waste in London.

The retailer is staging its Community GiveBack Day today when 5% of gross sales from its nine UK stores will be given to City Harvest.

Whole Foods Market is also giving City Harvest a platform at four of its London stores to publicise what it does.

“At Whole Foods Market we take minimising our food waste very seriously,” said co-ordinator Benjamin Woodgate. “Since we make so much of our food fresh in store, some surplus food is inevitable. We are raising funds to keep a City Harvest van on the road for a year that should rescue 98 tonnes of surplus food, which could become 226,000 meals. We are proud to help City Harvest deliver a solution to the London-wide issue of food waste, and redistributing food to those who need it most.”

Founded in 2014, City Harvest is based on a New York model and now delivers five tonnes of unsold food a week to local charities. To date it has delivered 100 tonnes of food, or 230,000 meals, to more than 80 organisations in the London area.

CEO Laura Winningham said today’s event was a great opportunity to raise the profile of what it was doing.

“We are very grateful to Whole Foods Market, not only for the help in raising funds, but also to help us build awareness of the issue of food waste in London and the work City Harvest is doing,” she explained.

“Many people in the UK care about those in need and are well aware of food waste. The challenge, therefore, is the very practical one of ‘waste not, want not’, effectively linking those with the surplus to those who need it most, often through very small charities.”