The Pennypit Community Development Trust assists people within Preston, Seton & Gosford (PSG), Fa’side, and Musselburgh, and aims to help tackle poverty and reduce inequalities in these areas through sports, skills development, nutrition, and family engagement.
The group now receive food donations from their local Tesco stores in Haddington and Musselburgh, through the Tesco Community Food Connection (CFC), a scheme that is on hand to help support the local area.
Euan Stratton, Community Development Worker at Pennypit Community Development Trust, said: “The food donations allow people to budget their money for other essentials, without going hungry, and ensure no one is ever left wondering when their next meal will be.
“We’d like to thank Tesco and FareShare for helping us with this project - their involvement with the local community is wonderful to see.”
The Community Food Connection scheme ensures that surplus food from Tesco doesn’t go to waste and is instead provided to charities and community groups, whose volunteer members then distribute it to the public.
Claire De Silva, Head of Communities and Media at Tesco, said: “Working with community groups such as Pennypit Community Development Trust, to help them get the food and supplies they need is such an important service for us to provide. The dedication they have to their local community is amazing, and we are pleased to do what we can to support.
“We firmly believe no good food should go to waste, which is why we began our Community Food Connection scheme. It enables us to ensure our surplus food is put to good use in communities.”
FareShare is the UK’s biggest charity fighting hunger and food waste. Two-thirds of the organisations it provides food to, support children and families.
The group was also gifted a generous £1,000 winter voucher in December, which was used to provide Christmas presents for children, and ‘Jingle bags’ were delivered to families and individuals, which included all the necessities for a full Christmas dinner. ‘New year bags’ were also given out and included a steak pie to create a traditional New Year’s Day dinner.
Euan added: “The use of the monetary voucher to buy gifts and create the jingle and new year’s bags was greatly appreciated by the local residents we provide for, who otherwise may not have felt like celebrating over the festive period.”
Katie Sadler, Head of FareShare Go, said: “The food that Tesco redistributes through FareShare makes a huge difference to people facing food insecurity across the UK.
“We work with thousands of charities and community groups providing essential support to their communities, and receiving a steady stream of food helps them to feed the people who need it most.”
By providing the surplus food to help communities, it is also aiding the environment by ensuring that the food does not end up as landfill.”
Charities and community groups that could benefit from the support of the Community Food Connection scheme can find further information at https://fareshare.org.uk/getting-food/.