– IFCO partners with two leading UK food redistribution charities to fight hunger and food waste
MUNICH, June 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — IFCO, the world’s leading provider of Reusable Transport Packaging (ERT), expands its support for FareShare and The Felix Project, two of the UK’s leading food redistribution charities United. The primary goal of this tripartite partnership is to make it easy, fast and cost neutral for producers, suppliers and retailers to donate their surplus food to charity, while ensuring that FareShare and The Felix Project can deliver food fresh and healthy products to people in need more safely and efficiently. Both organizations work closely with the food industry to source safe surplus food that would otherwise end up in the trash, landfill or anaerobic digestion.
This collaboration agreement reinforces IFCO’s commitment to help reduce food waste in the fresh produce supply chain. In October 2022, the European Federation of Food Banks (FEBA) selected IFCO as its Official Reusable Packaging Partner. Since then, food banks across Europe (including Fareshare and the Felix Project) have already received donated sustainable ERTs to support their food distribution to charities.
Although food donations are not a long-term solution to food poverty, IFCO recognizes that the professional redistribution of quality surplus food has an important role to play. For this reason, IFCO has made it even easier for suppliers and retailers to donate fresh produce on IFCO RPCs to the FareShare and The Felix Project networks. While growers and retailers have always been able to transport food donations on IFCO RPCs, this collaboration ensures faster flow of fresh produce from even more suppliers through food banks, as well as simplified return of RPCs to the IFCO pooling system. One aspect of the collaboration is leveraging IFCO’s digital solutions, as both FareShare and The Felix Project now use the MyIFCO app to declare and schedule the collection of IFCO RPCs, ensuring a much easier return process.
FareShare is the UK’s largest charity fighting hunger and food waste. It works with the food industry to source and distribute over 50,000 tonnes of surplus food each year to 8,500 organizations across the UK, which is equivalent to around 128 million meals for vulnerable people. By being directly involved in UK operations, IFCO provides essential support to the charity.
Kris Gibbon-Walsh, FareShare’s Director of Network, Community and Operations, said: “IFCO has contributed to our mission in strategic, pragmatic and impactful ways. With IFCO on board, we have reduced the typical barriers that often prevent providers and retailers donate surplus food, namely time, effort and cost. This partnership automatically expands our network of potential suppliers across the UK and internationally.” FareShare is currently experiencing skyrocketing demand due to the cost of living crisis, so this support from IFCO is needed more than ever so that we can deliver more nutritious food to the people in our local communities who need it most.”
The Felix Project is London’s largest food redistribution charity. In 2022 it redistributed the equivalent of more than 29 million meals and supplied food to every London borough. It is part of the FareShare network, but also works independently to source more than half of its own high-quality surplus food, which is then given to some 1,000 charities and schools in the capital.
Richard Smith, Deputy Director of Food Supply for the Felix Project, stated: “The IFCO association has helped us to attract new suppliers, including manufacturers: “The collaboration with IFCO has helped us to attract new suppliers, including manufacturers. In the past, some were willing to donate surplus food but were hesitant because of the potential extra cost or workload involved. Now, thanks to IFCO’s support, they can and want to be part of our network.”
IFCO is determined to reduce food waste to make the global fresh produce supply chain more sustainable. That’s why IFCO RPCs are designed to protect fresh produce throughout the entire value chain, so that food arrives in better condition for a longer shelf life and is therefore less likely to end up in waste. the dump. Independent scientific studies have shown that RPCs help reduce food waste throughout the supply chain by providing superior product protection and ventilation. Since 2016 IFCO has partnered with FareShare to support its important mission to fight hunger and food waste and has been working with The Felix Project since 2020.
Neil Stewart, Director of Asset Control at IFCO, who leads the collaboration with UK food banks, said: “We are proud and excited to support FareShare and The Felix Project, two organizations so incredibly passionate about getting good surplus of food to vulnerable people. We hope that our contribution means more providers join the network and more communities can be reached, especially at a time when these services are so desperately needed. On a more personal level, many of our employees IFCO members in the UK have been so impressed by the impact of FareShare and The Felix Project that they will use part of their annual paid volunteer leave to help out at food banks and distribution centers run by charities. that the IFCO UK team is fully committed to making this partnership work.”
More informationIFCO is the world’s leading provider of reusable packaging solutions for fresh foods, with customers in more than 50 countries. IFCO has a fleet of more than 370 million Reusable Packaging Containers (RTCs) worldwide, used each year for 2 billion shipments of fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, bread and more. items from suppliers to food retailers. IFCO RPCs ensure a better fresh food supply chain by protecting freshness and quality and reducing costs, food waste and environmental impact compared to single-use packaging. More information: www.ifco.com | Follow us on LinkedIn @IFCO SYSTEMS
About FareShare FareShare is the UK’s largest charity fighting hunger and food waste. We collect surplus food from across the food industry, sort it in our regional warehouses across the UK and deliver it to a network of nearly 8,500 charities and community groups. Among them are food banks and pantries, shelters, shelters, community centers, senior food clubs, school clubs, and hospices. Three quarters of the organizations we provide food to help children and families. During the last fiscal year, 2022-23, FareShare redistributed the equivalent of nearly 128 million meals, or 4 meals every second.
About The Felix Project The Felix Project is London’s largest food redistribution charity. Founded in 2016, it rescues unsaleable food and delivers it directly to around 1,000 organizations and schools that support those in need. Our vision is a London where no one goes hungry and good food is never wasted. In 2022, we deliver enough food to prepare more than 29 million meals. For more information, visit: www.thefelixproject.org
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