A campaign initiated by the Evening Standard, to deal with food wastage and hunger, has found new supporters in London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Sainsbury's. Wearing a hi-vis jacket and delivering fresh surplus fruit and vegetables to residents of St Mungo's charity, Southwark, Khan said it's a "win-win". "With the best will in the world, you are going to have surplus food and this campaign ingeniously turns the problem of the food waste into a social solution to help address food poverty," Khan said.
Khan also addressed the issue at the Urban Food Awards at Borough Market where he announced a brand new prize, the Best Surplus Food Initiative. "Today I'm calling on London's food industry, retailers, restaurants, suppliers and producers to be more open and transparent about how much food they throw away. I'm confident that together we can bring about a significant reduction in food waste and by donating this surplus to charity we can help some of the capital's most vulnerable people."
Mike Coupe, Sainsbury's chief executive, said that arrangements are already in hand for Felix to collect groceries from 15 of their stores. "Food waste is an issue where Sainsbury's wants to make a radical difference. Reducing food waste in our supply chain has developed hand in hand with our determination to ensure any surplus food is put to positive use. We have achieved our target of zero waste to landfill and we are proud of development of more than 1000 food donation partnerships with local charities. We see first-hand the difference these partnerships have on people's lives. That is why are incredibly proud to be a launch partner for The Felix Project and Food for London."
Coupe added, "Our focus will remain on tackling food waste in our business and redistributing as much surplus food as possible in addition to helping households waste less and save more in their homes. We know we can't do this on our own and success will depend on the grocery, food and hospitality industries working together to make sure food waste becomes a thing of the past."
