It estimated that the surplus food is edible and in date and could provide 800M meals to the 5.8M poorest UK consumers, an equivalent to 13 meals per person.
Lindsay Boswell, ceo of FareShare, said the charity works with retailers and suppliers to rescue good food from going to waste and redirect it to people in need across the UK.
Only using 1.5% of surplus
“Over the past decade we have redistributed enough surplus [food] to provide over 67M meals,” she said. “This is a great milestone to reach in our 10th anniversary and we are only using 1.5% of surplus food.
“However this is just the tip of the iceberg of what is potentially available and we could be providing so much more from this source.”
The charity redirected over 12M meals from the food industry to 1,296 charities and community organisations to those in need in 2013–14, an increase of 328% over the last 10 years.
The charity provided 2.8M meals over the course of its first year in operation (2004–05), it said.
FareShare redistributed 1,800t of surplus food in 2004–05 and 5,500 in 2013–14, an increase of 205% over 10 years.
The charity was established in 1994 by homelessness charity Crisis and Sainsbury from a similar model in America, which put surplus food to good use.
Boswell said: “We have built a sustainable and successful model to tackle food hunger through food waste, which all started thanks to our original founders Crisis and Sainsbury.
Feed 62,200 people daily
“Without their input we wouldn’t be here today helping feed 62,200 people daily and I look forward to building on this success for the future.”
Demand for food from FareShare member charities is rising at an alarming rate, with 59% experiencing more people turning to them for food, the charity claimed.
An estimated 70% of the charities feared that demand will increase in the future.
Leslie Morphy, ceo of Crisis, said:“We established FareShare 20 years ago as a way to get surplus food to people who need it most and it has remained true to its founding mission, thriving as a charity in its own right. Sadly, its work is now more important than ever.”