Simon Fell MP for Barrow and Furness Helps Secure 60 Million Meals For People In Need

The Government will introduce a £15 million fund to help farmers redistribute surplus food, preventing millions of meals worth of edible food from going to waste.

The announcement was made by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the National Farmers Union (NFU) Conference, as part of a commitment to tackling food insecurity in the UK.

Simon Fell has supported FareShare’s campaign to secure the funding, which will result in the equivalent of 60 million meals getting delivered via community organisations to people worst affected by the rising cost of living.

FareShare is the UK’s largest food redistribution charity, and in Barrow and Furness last year, it delivered the equivalent of 317,700 meals via 10 local charities.

Commenting, Mr. Fell said:

“I’ve seen FairShare working in Furness and this is a huge victory for front line community groups who desperately need more food to meet the increase in demand for their services. This newly announced funding will go towards supporting the thousands of local charities that use surplus food to help strengthen their community. All of this food would otherwise have gone to waste, and it is right that it will now go to feed people instead.”

Despite record amounts of food entering FareShare’s network, the charity says it still doesn’t have enough food to meet the demand caused by the rising cost of living. This funding will help provide more food via the charity by making it cost-neutral for farmers and food businesses to redistribute their surplus.

George Wright, CEO of FareShare, said:

"We are thrilled that after years of campaigning from FareShare and the Felix Project, the Government will be committing £15m towards food surplus redistribution, getting good-to-eat surplus food from our farms to people who need it instead of letting it go to waste. We would not have been able to achieve this without the support from the public, donors, partners and MPs, all of whom have played a part in securing this significant step forward. I’m incredibly grateful to Simon for his support.”

"We know that farmers want their edible surplus produce to feed people. At a time when 13 million people in the UK are facing food insecurity, this funding has the potential to make an enormous difference to people and communities across the country. We look forward to learning more details and to working with the Government, farmers and the surplus food redistribution sector to put plans into place that will deliver a rapid and effective impact.”

The funding should mean that 25,000 tonnes of food will be redistributed from farms and food businesses instead of being wasted. It has the potential to prevent the wasteful emissions of over 50,000 tonnes of CO2e and could generate over £68 million in social value.

Ultimately, it will turn an environmental problem in to a social good.