Yeo Valley
Driven by a need to ‘nourish and nurture people and the planet’, Yeo Valley has established partnerships with local and national charitable schemes to help create opportunities for individuals, families and communities in need to access healthy and nutritious food, while also reducing our carbon footprint and environmental impact.
Yeo Valley has expanded its ongoing partnership with food redistribution charity FareShare South West by introducing a new initiative to help reduce food poverty and food waste and by donating product to support their ‘Healthy Holiday’ campaign. Utilising their network, the manufacturer has supported 1,142 charities in the just three months, including groups that work with the homeless, asylum seekers and refugees, children and vulnerable/elderly people.
The manufacturer has also established new partnerships with local community hubs The Highbridge Pantry and The Bridgwater Pantry, donating product that cannot be sold through normal retail channels – such as partial cases. The company has also extended its partnership with the Somerset Village & Community Agents charity by donating meals from its canteen, seasonal gifts (Easter, Christmas) and supporting local initiatives (Christmas dinners for vulnerable people).
By expanding its partnership with ‘Too Good To Go’ to seven days per week, Yeo Valley has improved access that more people in the local area can benefit from access to healthy, nutritious and affordable food during the cost-of-living crisis.
The senior leadership team regularly hold workshops with Yeo Valley’s co-owners to generate ideas on how to support the local community. Successful projects include se0lf-appointed ‘Waste Champions’ to encourage and educate fellow co-owners to save product from disposal, Too Good To Go ‘magic’ bags handed out to the local customers and internal communications such as campus briefs, quarterly newsletters and internal intranet to help increase awareness, promote the partnership and encourage participation.
The Felix Project
The Felix Project has a vision where no good food is wasted and no Londoner goes hungry. With this goal in mind, the charity works with the food and drink industry to rescue surplus produce that would have otherwise gone to waste and redistributes it to community organisations working on the frontline to feed people experiencing hunger.
Last year saw the group recue more than 13,000 tonnes of food to primary schools, food banks, shelters and more. The Felix Project works with around 1,000 organisations each week delivering food and promoting the importance of balanced and healthy diets.
With its four depots across London, the organisation can work with communities in every borough of the city. Each depot has a dedicated community engagement team member that works with organisations to support them to get their deliveries on the day they need, handle any issues, answer queries and stay informed about what is happening at Felix.
Outside of simply redistributing food, The Felix Project is now exploring ways to extend the life of food through processes. This can include the creation of soups, sauces, tinned food and drinks with produce received during seasonal gluts. In one example, the group worked with a farmer in Kent to transform inedible apples from a donated orchard into juice that ahd a shelf life of 18 months.
The Felix Project is constantly looking at ways to improve it environmental impact, with a sustainability working group exploring news ways of operating to cut its carbon emissions. One thing they have been successful at is reducing how much plastic The Felix Project uses in its staff canteens – the use of single use plastic cutlery and crockery has been banned across all sites, helping to cut waste.
Nestlé
The PhunkyFoods Programme (PFP) has helped to bring healthy lifestyle education sessions to more than 330 schools within close proximity to Nestlé’s sites across the UK, with support specifically targeted towards the most deprived areas.
Faced with the pressures of the cost-of-living-crisis, PFP stepped up its efforts to engage with parents and families to continue to support and enable them to live healthier lives. As such, the programme made efforts to boost its outreach, engaging with almost 30,000 children and 2,000 adults over the course of the 2023/24 academic year.
Over the next 12 months, PFP’s goal is to increase its impact by rolling out the programme in more areas across the UK. To do so, it will target areas of highest perceived needs, reaching out to primary schools located within the top 20% of deprived areas – based on the UK Government’s ‘Income deprivation affecting children index’ – to ensure these schools receive priority support.
Feedback from Nestlé’s employees showed they felt proud of its initiatives designed to improve nutrition, health and wellness awareness of school-age children. The manufacturer plans to build on this by looking to get more of our employees involved in more volunteering at its partner schools and really embed the message of the importance of healthy food all year round.
This year the manufacturer identified standard and easy-to-understand roles that volunteers can play in the programme, which will be incorporated into the catalogue of the company’s volunteering app to launch soon.
Dunbia UK
Social responsibility is a cornerstone of Dunbia UK’s operations, with the manufacturer boasting a long tradition of supporting charities and giving back to the communities in which it operates. With 13 sites across the country, the meat processor has had the chance to make a difference in a diverse range of communities through its assistance to local NGOs, charities and not for profits.
In 2023, the manufacturer donated more than £400,000 to a wide range of organisations and initiatives, exceeding its milestone target by 14.5%. In April 2024, Dunbia UK’s matched funding initiative helped 15 groups, match funding 12 staff volunteers and donating £6,400 and €2,315 in the UK and Ireland respectively.
Dunbia has supported more than 480 community groups, charities, and not-for-profits, raising over £1m and volunteering 8,300 hours from 2021 to 2023.
One standout project saw Dunbia UK support the renovation of Hatherleigh Primary School’s outdoor classroom – which had fallen into a state of disrepair – providing assistance in sourcing the best quality materials, suppliers, and tradespeople for their build. Once a supplier and cost were agreed, the manufacturer offered the skill and experience of its maintenance teams to repair any classroom items that had the potential to be saved.
Other projects included a £2,000 donation towards the preservation of freshwater pearl mussels in Devon and Cornwall, providing financial assistance, resources, and expertise to help local farmers adopt sustainable practices, and sponsoring UK Hereford Youth’s 10 applicants on their journey to represent the Hereford Youth Team at the World Hereford Conference.
Employees are encouraged to get involved in volunteering and fundraising events, with the goal to have a positive impact on local communities. Dunbia UK’s Community & Charity Champions arrange company-wide events where all sites get involved, such as Movember and Darkness into Light, and each site has a Community Engagement Champion focused on local activities. Group Calendar of Events is shared with all sites to inspire and encourage fundraising ideas.
The Food Manufacture Excellence Awards 2025 are kindly supported by headliner Menzies and event sponsors Niras, Quor, and Watermill Press.
The entire shortlist of finalists for the FMEAs 2025 can be found here.
