By Angela Green, Content Executive, H&C News: 4 million meals on the way to people in need.
KFC and FareShare have teamed up to launch a new food redistribution partnership to help deliver surplus food from KFC restaurants to people most in need and to prevent it from going to waste.
With the current cost of living crisis and more than 10% of the UK’s population facing food insecurity each day, this programme aims to deliver the equivalent of more than four million meals across the year to people in need, at a time when many are faced with rising food prices and crippling energy bills.
The full rollout will see the fried chicken experts onboard the majority of its 1,000 restaurants by the end of 2022, following a successful pilot in 20 KFC restaurants in the Midlands, the North East and Essex.
Since the beginning of the eight-month trial period, the partnership has redistributed the equivalent of more than 27,500 meals to over 22 local community groups, supporting an estimated 1,900 people each week2 via FareShare Go.
This partnership is on a big mission to combat unnecessary food waste and KFC will take a systemic approach to ensuring all unsold food is redistributed to local communities – and at scale.
The partnership is also FareShare Go’s first venture into frozen food, further diversifying the food offering available to people facing hunger and offering people the opportunity to enjoy food in their own time, and on their own terms.
Jenny Packwood, Chief Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer at KFC, says: “Being a good neighbour means caring about local people and supporting the local issues that matter most. The last two years have been really tough – but particularly tough for some more than others. We’ve seen more and more people in the local communities that we serve being plunged into food insecurity and, as the cost of living crisis intensifies, it is more important than ever that we make sure any surplus food gets to the people who need it most.
“We want to move fast and hard on rolling out our food redistribution programme by the end of the year, and across all of our restaurants, because we cannot sit by while our communities suffer. That’s why we’re thrilled to be working with FareShare to deliver so many meals, which would have otherwise gone to waste, to people facing hunger in our communities across the country. By redistributing our surplus fried chicken, we’ll not only be tackling food insecurity, but we’ll also be taking an important step towards our goal of become a fully circular, zero waste business by 2035.”
In a recent survey of more than 1,200 charities receiving food though FareShare, 90% of those organisations say their services have been affected by the cost of living crisis, and 75% say they’ve seen an increase in demand for their services over the last year.
Lindsay Boswell, Chief Executive at FareShare says: “We believe no good food should go to waste which is why we’re so excited to be partnering with KFC. This partnership marks the first time we will be offering frozen poultry products to local communities using the FareShare Go app, complimenting the fresh fruit and veg, and bakery items typically received.
“With the current cost of living crisis affecting millions of people already struggling to make ends meet, this food is needed now more than ever and we anticipate that, through this partnership, more than 2,000 charities and community groups will be able to collect from their local KFC restaurant.”
Lisa Wilson from Heath Hayes Community Food Table (FareShare charity partner) says: “The food we get from KFC is great and massively important. Sometimes KFC chicken is the only meat some families have each week. Everybody loves KFC food, even the OAPs we work with.
“With our collections from KFC Cannock, we get great big bags of food which we then put into family size bags. Everything either goes into our food parcels or we take it to a council run nursery nearby for the children. The children have to take a packed lunch with them but many of them turn up without a lunch, so it’s up to the staff to feed them at lunch time.
“We support them massively with different lunch items, five days a week. We make up sandwiches and snacks and things to make sure the children can eat, and the food is then not coming out of the nursery budget. We send them soup, beans, bread, things for sandwiches, and the food from KFC too. Anything where the children will get a meal.”
As part of its ongoing commitment to tackle food insecurity and the current cost of living crisis at scale, KFC UK&I has also launched a new food donation scheme for its team members, whereby its 30,000-strong workforce will now be able to purchase KFC items at cost price, reducing further barriers to food access.
