Greenvale, the UK’s leading potato supplier, is putting spare spuds from its Shropshire site, Tern Hill and Cambridgeshire site, Floods Ferry, to good use by using them to tackle food waste by working with food distribution charity, FareShare.
Through this partnership, Greenvale is helping to feed the homeless, families in need, elderly people in day centres and a variety of other projects by donating two tonnes of fresh potatoes to the charity every month.
Whilst aiding the charity, the scheme is also cutting Greenvale’s own waste and making use of misshapen, overspill or incorrectly sized potatoes which would otherwise be used as animal stock feed.
Colin Burcombe, Business Development Manager at FareShare said: “Greenvale is one of the fresh produce suppliers leading the way in supporting the charity and we are looking forward to building on this in the future.”
Committed to building a more sustainable business, Greenvale runs a Green15 environmental strategy which aims to halve water usage, reduce CO2 emissions by 20% and completely eliminate landfill waste by 2015. Greenvale has a longstanding commitment to Sainsbury’s 2020 plan which outlines that ‘All waste should be put to positive use’ so the FareShare project is in alignment with that message.
FareShare works with a number of retailers and food businesses by sourcing surplus food which is fresh and good quality but may be wasted due to it being seasonal stock, damaged, a production trial or unsuitable for general sale. This food is sourced and distributed to one of FareShare’s 17 operations across the UK. FareShare then redistributes this food to one of 900 charities they support, helping to feed 43,700 vulnerable people every day.
Andrew Clarkson, Retail Commercial Director for Greenvale said: “The partnership with FareShare is a great way for us to make use of potatoes that otherwise might just go to waste. It’s a fantastic scheme and we are delighted to be able to play our part.”
