The company’s long-term commitment to tackling food waste and food insecurity reaches major milestone
Booker is celebrating a significant sustainability milestone with FareShare, marking providing the equivalent of 25 million meals over five years through its long-standing partnership with the UK’s leading food redistribution charity.
The 25 m meal milestone highlights the scale and impact of the partnership, which sees surplus food from across Booker’s estate redistributed to charities and community groups nationwide – helping to support families and individuals facing food insecurity while preventing good food from going to waste.
Since the partnership began, Booker has worked closely with FareShare as part of its waste reduction strategy, while ensuring surplus food reaches those who need it most. The milestone comes as Booker also marks five years of involvement in the FareShare Go programme, which helps charities access additional surplus food direct from branches.
Alongside FareShare, local communities are also supported to access surplus via OLIO’s Food Waste Hero volunteers, while colleagues can also take advantage of Booker’s Colleague Shop.
Angela Hughes, Technical & Sustainability Director at Booker, said:
“Reaching 25 million meals donated with FareShare is a milestone we’re incredibly proud of. This partnership is about more than reducing food waste – it’s about making a meaningful difference to people’s lives, supporting local communities and creating long-term, positive impact. As we look ahead, we remain committed to building on this work and ensuring no good food goes to waste.”
Kris Gibbon – Walsh, Deputy CEO of FareShare and The Felix Project, said:
“We are enormously grateful to everyone at Booker for their ongoing support. Reaching the milestone of providing the equivalent of 25 m meals alongside celebrating 5 years partnership with the FareShare Go programme is hugely important. This food will have a life-changing impact on communities right across the UK, meaning more good-to-eat food goes to the people who need it most instead of going to waste.
“With the support of Booker, thousands of charities and community groups in every region of the UK can run transformative services for local people. By saving on food, our amazing charities can focus on providing the services that matter most to their communities – we are so grateful for Booker’s support .”
Saasha Celestial-One , Co-Founder of Olio, said:
“We’re incredibly proud that, together with FareShare, we’ve been able to help Booker redistribute 25 million meals back into communities. Thank you to every single Olio and FareShare volunteer that’s made this possible, as well as the Booker HQ team and colleagues – whose flexibility and commitment to sustainability have been so crucial in making our partnership a success. Here’s to the next 25 million.”
Real impact in local communities
Across the UK, FareShare’s charity partners are seeing the tangible benefits of Booker’s ongoing support.
Susan Ward, Kersiebank Food Project, said:
“At Kersiebank Food Project we exist to help those who need support in the Grangemouth area in Scotland with a weekly food bank. Recently we have seen demand for our services increase and it’s difficult to keep up with the nee d.
We’ve been collecting from Booker for 5 years now and collect a range of fresh food and long – life cupboard supplies . These donations enable us to provide a variety of food for the people we support to make well -rounded meals – thank you Booker!”
Mark Graham, Development Officer at Holbrooks Community Care Association, said:
“Booker’s contributions have made a significant difference to our social supermarket over the last few years enabling us to offer high quality food to the people who rely on us.
Their regular donations of essentials – often the items that place the greatest strain on our budget, such as bread, eggs, and meat – allow us to provide a wider and more reliable range of food. Their support has strengthened our service enormously, and we ‘re truly grateful for the impact it has on our community.”
Lola Owoseni, Volunteer at The Vine Sanctuary, Manchester, said:
“The Vine Sanctuary runs both a food bank to support people with immediate need, and also offers support services including skills training, mental health support and career guidance to help people in the community build more positive future.
We’ve been collecting from Booker Openshaw and Middleton regularly to support our food bank service. Booker food is fantastic and very fresh, and the staff are polite and helpful. We receive lots of vegetables, bread, sandwiches, and pre-made meals, and for this we would like to give them a big thank you for helping our food bank.”
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