Toast Ale has launched a ‘meal deal’ initiative to help feed vulnerable people amidst the Covid-19 crisis.

The social enterprise, which uses surplus bread to brew beer, has committed profits from online sales to support community feeding projects – equating to roughly one meal for every bottle or can of beer purchased. The initiative will also see Toast Ale’s furloughed team volunteering their time to help redirect surplus food, that would otherwise be wasted, to those in need.

Donations are being backdated to 1 March and will run for at least the next 12 weeks. As a result, sales in March alone will fund 5,724 meals for vulnerable communities.

Liverpool-based Alchemic Kitchen – which repurposes surplus produce, while connecting vulnerable communities – is the first project being supported by Toast. It has rapidly adapted to prepare, cook and distribute meals to those who are struggling to access food and is currently serving about 100 meals each week. With Toast’s support it will be able to scale up quickly.

As the Liverpool project reaches capacity, funding will be directed to similar programmes in London, Sussex and Kent. Ultimately, Toast aims for the Meal Deal campaign to fund feeding operations across the country, with overheads covered by existing funding streams so money raised by Toast can go directly to serving food to those in need.

The meals will be distributed primarily through the brewery’s existing charity partner Feedback.

Since partnering with the charity in 2016, Toast has donated more than £25,000.