The UK wastes around 9.5 million tonnes of food each year, including waste generated at various stages of the supply chain, from production to distribution, retail and household.
The average UK family wastes around £60 worth of food each month by throwing away almost an entire meal a day.
Meanwhile, millions of people, including one in five families with children, have reportedly gone hungry or skipped meals in recent weeks because they could not regularly afford to buy groceries.
UKHarvest is a Chichester-based, not-for-profit perishable food rescue operation and education charity, eliminating both hunger and food waste by distributing quality surplus food from suppliers and delivering it directly to charities.
It operates a series of initiatives to help reach those who need it most, including 16 Community Food Hubs across West Sussex and its London based community kitchen, Nourish Hub.
To support its education programmes and community initiatives, UKHarvest collects perishable food from places like supermarkets, hotels, wholesalers, farmers, stadiums, catering companies, shopping centres, cafes and more, delivering it for free to charities who are helping vulnerable people throughout the UK.
Some of the charities UKHarvest works with include Brighton Unemployed Centre Families Project, Coastal West Sussex Mind, The Society of St James and YMCA.
Chichester-based experiential agency, Collaborate chose UKHarvest as its charity partner for 2024 and is hoping to shine a light on the work that the charity is doing.
The charity was chosen by Collaborate’s staff, who could see the real impact that it was having on the communities who needed it the most.
Throughout the last few months and for the rest of the year the team at Collaborate has been spending time volunteering alongside the charity, with Collaborate giving their staff a day’s paid leave as part of their internal benefits for time spent working with UKHarvest.
The company has also been financially supportive, using UKHarvest as their preferred caterers for any events and meetings, purchasing all of their food from them.
Ollie Biddle, marketing and content manager at Collaborate said: “We’re really passionate about optimising sustainability in all of our events and ensuring that we don’t waste food, so partnering with UKHarvest was a no brainer. The amazing thing about them is that they don’t just stop food from being wasted, but they actually give food back to the community. It’s not your typical food bank format either. They use quality food from high-end suppliers like Goodwood and Waitrose, so even those who are food insecure are able to enjoy high quality meals.”
Andrew Meredith, Business Support Manager said: “Volunteers are central to our operation, and without them we simply would not be able to rescue as much food as we do or reach as many people. It’s fantastic to receive support from Collaborate, who have dedicated their employee’s time to ensure we can keep hosting our events and food hubs in a safe and welcoming manner.”
