Small changes, revolutionary results: how we triple surplus food redistribution

Imagine mountains of mangos dumped outside your office. Towers of tomatoes tipped outside your school. Piles of potatoes filling your local park. 

That’s the scale of what’s happening, out of sight, every year. More than a billion meals’ worth of good surplus food goes to animal feed, energy or landfill instead of to people. It goes there because it’s often cheaper for businesses to waste it than to give it away. That’s the wrong way round, and it’s something we can fix. 

Surplus food redistribution is an unambiguously positive thing to do. It gets good food to more than 1.5 million people a year, strengthening communities, improving health, supporting the economy and reducing waste. The breakfast clubs, community kitchens, pantries and shelters we supply don’t just provide food. They provide connection, dignity and support with whatever people are facing in their lives. 

Redistribution is not a substitute for tackling the root causes of poverty, and we will never pretend otherwise. But while good food goes to waste and people struggle to afford it, getting that food to the communities who can use it is simply the right thing to do. 

The businesses we work with want to donate. But giving food away means extra sorting, packing and transport, while sending it to animal feed or anaerobic digestion can earn money or cost less. So redistribution happens where companies go out of their way to make it happen, not because the system rewards it. 

We’ve seen what happens when the economics change. When the government’s Farm Gate scheme made donation cost-neutral for growers, more than 14,000 tonnes of fresh produce reached communities. When the funding ended, the fresh produce Felix redistributed fell by 39%. Short-term grants can unlock food, but only lasting change keeps it flowing. 

The UK now redistributes just 0.7% of its surplus through charities. France redistributes twice that share, and the USA more than four times. Both have used policy to make it happen. 

Our report sets out the evidence for redistribution, from an economic, social, health, environmental and policy perspective. It examines the barriers to redistributing more, weighs up the full range of options open to government, and recommends five: 

1. A Scaling Fund for Food Supply, to keep surplus moving to people while longer-term reform is put in place. 
2. Reform of Corporation Tax to make donating surplus food the economically rational choice.
3. Redistribution built into Food Nation 2040 and the Circular Economy Growth Plan, so it’s treated as a way to deliver the government’s goals. 
4. Mandatory reporting of surplus food, so government, industry and charities can see where the food is. 
5. Official guidance on liability, to remove a barrier that exists in perception but not in law. 

These policies are proportionate and achievable. Rescuing 212 million meals’ worth of surplus from food manufacturing would cost around £36 million, a fraction of the cost of buying the same food. They have been tested with experts in law, tax and food supply chains, and Harvard Law School’s Emily Broad Leib has written the report’s foreword. 

The government has made its priorities clear: supporting local communities, giving people breathing space from the cost of living, and reaching every postcode. That is what the community and charitable sector does, day in, day out. 

It has also committed to putting civil society at the heart of government. We appreciate how seriously ministers and officials across departments have taken our work and our ideas. The commitment to triple surplus food redistribution is a clear sign of that ambition. These five policies would help deliver it. 

For the first time, the charitable and community redistribution sector has come together, as the Food Redistribution Partnership UK, to speak with one voice on these policies. We stand ready to work with the UK government and the devolved administrations to make them happen. 

I’m grateful to the many people and organisations who contributed to this work. Ultimately, this is about supporting people across the UK with the challenges they face, and the charities and community groups who are there for them. 

Small changes, revolutionary results.