The AGCO Agriculture Foundation (AAF) will provide $300,000 in grant funding to the UK charity Fareshare to redistribute food and prevent excess produce on farms from going to waste.
FareShare is reportedly the largest UK charity tackling food waste. With this money, it will be able to help farmers harvest surplus food that might otherwise be left in the field and distribute this through its channels.
The grant is part of a two-year climate action partnership between AAF and the charity, with every tonne of surplus food redistributed reportedly saving around 1.6 tonnes of embedded CO2, and preventing another 3.8 tonnes from the alternative disposal methods.
Over the two years, the partnership is expected to secure 475 tonnes of surplus food and redistribute more than one million meals to vulnerable communities.
It will also support labour to remove produce from fields and enable distribution, helping growers to sustainably repurpose produce that cannot be marketed.
Roger Batkin, Board Chair of AAF, says the support will be vital to households across the country: “Our support of the FareShare surplus food project comes at a crucial time and aligns with the Foundation’s vision to prevent and relieve hunger. We hope to support the food needs of vulnerable households while combating climate change at both ends of the food chain by tackling food waste.”
FareShare currently has 34 centres across the UK, from Inverness to Truro, and provided 128 million meals during 2022; the equivalent of four meals per second.
Lindsay Boswell, Chief Executive Officer of FareShare, explained: “This partnership will help us further our reach and make a meaningful difference in getting surplus food from farms to people’s plates. We should never be wasting good food, especially not amid a cost-of-living crisis. FareShare is grateful to the AAF for extending their funding to the UK at this crucial time.”
For more information go to www.agcofoundation.org