A food charity has saved 306 tonnes of fresh, in-date, surplus food from waste in 2018 by diverting it to people in need across Tayside and Fife.
FareShare Tayside and Fife takes food that cannot be sold in shops because of packaging errors or a short shelf life, but is still good to eat, and redistributes it to community groups.
Items include fresh meat and fish, fruit and vegetables, ready meals, milk and cheeses.
The Dundee depot serves a network of 121 organisations across the city including school breakfast clubs, domestic violence refuges, older people’s lunch clubs, food banks and hospices.
A total of 688,293 meals were provided for vulnerable people across Tayside who might otherwise go hungry in 2018.
On average, each community group or charity saved £7,900 from its yearly food bill by using food from FareShare, with one in five organisations saying without that food, they would have to close.
FareShare Tayside and Fife manager Chris Doig said: “Times are tough for charities, with funding increasingly hard to come by.
“The food we redistribute is great quality and tastes just like the food you’d eat at home.
“It’s amazing that we can take something that could been thrown away and turn it into something that creates enormous social benefit.”
One such project is Forthill Primary’s Out of School Club.
The school, based in Dundee, provides meals and activities to pupils both before and after school as well as during school holidays.
A spokesperson for the club said: “Forthill Out of School Club is very appreciative of the service we receive from FareShare and pass the benefits of this on to our service users.
“Through our membership we are able to keep the cost of our childcare to a minimum and give the children a wide variety of food for breakfast, lunch and snacks – some of which they may never have tried before.”
