M&S Food has donated over 50million meals to local charities in the past seven years through its partnership with Neighbourly, designed to tackle food waste in-store. Over 2,700 good causes, from after school clubs to food banks, have benefitted from the donations of edible unsold fresh, ambient and chilled food from M&S stores, with over 6,000 benefitting from the partnership with Neighbourly in total.
Local groups across the UK are seeing demand for support surge due to the cost of living. Neighbourly’s latest community survey found 83% of groups are already seeing more demand, while 61% say they’ve seen a drop in food donations from the public. 73% say they would like more food items to be able to support those who use their services.
To provide further support for those in need in the run up to Christmas, M&S is donating 95,000 ambient products directly to groups, worth £50,000. This builds on its existing £1 million donation to help 1,000 local community groups, supported by Neighbourly, as part of its Christmas ‘Gifts That Give’ Clothing and Home campaign.
M&S customers wanting to donate items themselves can do so through in-store donation points, which are collected by local charity representatives via Neighbourly, as well as selecting the Neighbourly Foundation as their chosen charity in the UK. Every time customers shop with Sparks, M&S donates to their chosen charity. Customers can also find choices in-store to help reduce waste, such as frozen garlic bread made from unsold loaves and baguettes.
Andrew Clappen, Technical Director at M&S Food, said: “Across M&S, we’re extremely proud to have donated 50m meals to fantastic causes across the UK. M&S colleagues are going above and beyond to make sure any surplus edible food reaches those who need it most. Over the past seven years, our stores have developed long lasting relationships with charities at the heart of their community. As we approach Christmas, the hard work will continue to make sure no M&S Food goes to waste.”
“Redistributing edible surplus food is just one part of the puzzle though. We’re determined to tackle food waste – in-store, at source and across customer households. We’ve made progress by removing best before dates across fruit and vegetables, improving our forecasting system and working with suppliers – but there’s still more to do.”
M&S teamed up with distribution platform Neighbourly in 2015, and during the Covid pandemic, accelerated the roll-out of a new app to make it even easier for stores to donate surplus food. The partnership is central to the retailer’s plan to tackle food waste, in line with its Plan A target for 100% of edible surplus to be redistributed by 2025. Currently, 89% on average is redistributed.
Alongside an improved forecasting system, M&S has also updated its food redistribution policies for suppliers to minimise waste. Across stores, colleagues are also able to take home any edible surplus waste that is not able to reach charities or local groups.
Steve Butterworth, CEO of Neighbourly, added: “The cost of living crisis means more families are relying on their local community charities for food and other services – and will do in the run up to Christmas. As our latest community survey shows, support needs to keep up with demand. Our partnership with M&S has made a huge difference to over 6,000 good causes in the Neighbourly network since 2015, and the additional ambient donation is already helping to support struggling families across the UK.”
Poole Waste Not Want Not is one of the charities that has benefitted from M&S’ partnership with Neighbourly. Joined up with M&S’ Ferndown and Broadstone stores, the group receives surplus edible food, as well as any donations from customers via the in-store donation point. The ‘social supermarket’ supports 428 households and provides food with dignity to those individuals and families struggling to make ends meet. The group offers beneficiaries a choice of food, and have also opened a coffee shop area to offer other services to help families in the longer-term, such as budgeting advice, training opportunities and to encourage social groups which help reduce loneliness.
As well as helping reduce food waste in-store and at source, M&S is also taking steps to help customers live more sustainably. Earlier this year, the retailer removed best before dates from over 300 products in a bid to help tackle household food waste, while its Sparking Change challenge provides advice to customers on storing food properly to make it last longer, recipes for leftovers and encourages customers to explore plant proteins.
