Baker & Baker has partnered with charity FareShare to redistribute its products and ingredients otherwise destined for food waste.
The bakery supplier produces a wide range of sweet treats including doughnuts, muffins, brownies, cookies, cakes, and viennoiserie. It will be working closely with Fareshare to collect surplus stock from its four manufacturing sites in Bromborough, Ashington, Bradford, and Daventry.
This will then be shared among FareShare’s national network of food redistributors via regional centres, which support over 9,500 charities throughout the UK. In 2022 alone, FareShare redistributed food equivalent to 126 million meals.
The agreement follows a successful trial donation of products from Baker & Baker’s Bradford site in 2022, with more than four tonnes of baked goods shared to around 550 UK charities. The firm revealed it was also exploring potential partnerships to support food redistribution efforts at its continental European sites.
“Food waste can sometimes be unavoidable, including surplus stock that remains perfectly safe to eat,” said Baker & Baker CEO John Lindsay. “In these instances, the responsible course of action is to ensure organisations such as FareShare can redistribute products to those most in need.
“FareShare and their network undertake some fantastic initiatives in communities throughout the country, and as such, we believe they are the perfect partner for Baker & Baker.”
The company said the partnership forms one strand of its approach to delivering sustainable business initiatives across its manufacturing operations, with food waste reduction programmes regarded as a critical component of reducing its impact on the environment. Ensuring that unused products are redirected to charities and community groups wherever possible also has a positive impact its carbon footprint, it said, contributing to its journey towards net zero.
FareShare’s head of food industry, Lucy Allison, noted that the cost-of-living crisis has had a disproportionate impact on people struggling to make ends meet. “We are so appreciative to work with companies like Baker & Baker that share our vision that no good food should go to waste. We look forward to seeing this partnership flourish,” Allison said.
Other recent agreements with FareShare among the baking industry include a year-long campaign with Pladis-owned snacking brand Jacob’s that kicked off last October, and the ‘Eggschange’ initiative with Krispy Kreme to swap unwanted Easter eggs for doughnuts earlier this year.
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