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INTRODUCTION Using our resources for good
Financing the good fight Our premise – how to provide a billion meals to people in need – is wildly aspirational. But even if we only achieve a small proportion of what is suggested in this report, we can feed millions more people who don’t have access to affordable or nutritious food. It is worth repeating: we can have a huge impact, and often easily. The easy option operationally, and financially, is often to send unsaleable but edible food to become animal feed, or for use in anaerobic digestion. For organisations to be able to act at the scale required, we need to be onto a win-win, balancing making a positive impact with profitability. Here’s my suggestion. Again, let’s think about the resources available to us. If we work to reduce waste and reinvest some of those savings into producing more food at cost price using stranded labour, lines and other spare resources, I believe there’s a chance to do the right thing for the world, but also the right thing for each business.
Cross-industry collaboration Nobody has to solve this issue alone: it is through collaborating, sharing costs, resources and expertise that we have impact. The food and drink industry plays a pivotal role in feeding millions of people a year who don’t have access to affordable food. I’m proud of all the food recovered so far during our partnership with Felix, Alliance Food Sourcing and the Coronation Food Project. Felix already provides many millions of meals each year to people across the country. The question now is, how do we go even further? A sincere thank you to everyone who is involved in rescuing food and everyone who gets involved with ‘The Waste Equation’.”
I was volunteering in one of Felix’s depots when two pallets of carrots arrived. By chance, they were from the regular redistribution of surplus root vegetables that the Newton team had helped set up at Morrisons’ Flaxby manufacturing site 1 . Seeing the volunteers excited to send out fresh produce brought to life how important it is that we continue to recover good food. It really hit home as well: we could have sent out so much more. Felix doesn’t receive enough food to keep up with demand and with food insecurity expected to continue to rise, the gap between needs and availability will widen.
I came away invigorated and sure that we can do more, as an organisation and an industry. It got me thinking: how can Newton help best? Our strong suit is getting into the details of an issue and developing innovative, practical solutions which create real momentum. So, that’s the approach we took to developing this report. By analysing millions of tonnes of food manufactured in the UK, along with our partners at Felix, we created a Manufacturing Waste Map to provide visibility on where waste is greatest. In line with the UK Government and WRAP’s food and drink waste hierarchy, we have then shared practical solutions to reduce food waste and recover unpreventable surplus.
Tim Murray Partner, Newton
1 For more on this work click here
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