Redistribtion Revolution

As part of the Felix Network, we are writing to the Chancellor prior to Wednesday’s budget as FareShare Tayside & Fife.  Every day, we see the difference that rescued surplus food makes to the people we support, and to ask you to make a small change in the Autumn Budget to encourage redistributing surplus food.  In doing this, you will be backing our Redistribution Revolution campaign. 

Every year over a billion meals’ worth of great-quality food goes to waste in our supply chain: enough food to feed every child in the UK for a month. 

Meanwhile, food prices have risen by 40% since November 2020, and 12% of households in the UK are experiencing food insecurity, meaning more people rely on charities for support. 

Right now, it’s cheaper for a business to waste food than to give it to people. That’s the wrong way round, and we can fix it. 

We are calling for tax changes that reward businesses for redistributing surplus food, which would cover the cost of the food and the cost of rescuing it. 

This would make redistribution the economically viable first choice for surplus food, ahead of animal feed, anaerobic digestion, or landfill. 

From Shetland to Penzance, and from Belfast and Bangor to Brighton, we represent charities and community organisations reaching every local authority area in all four nations of the United Kingdom. 

The Redistribution Revolution is about more than just meals. It’s about what food makes possible. From breakfast clubs and community kitchens to neighbourhood pantries and homeless shelters, the frontline organisations we represent provide connection, dignity, and hope. 

In May, the UK government announced a ​‘National Programme to Redistribute Surplus Food’, with the goal of tripling surplus redistribution across the UK. The charitable and community surplus food redistribution sector has now signed a covenant committing to that goal. We stand ready to work together to achieve it. 

However, we need help from the Treasury to achieve our shared goal of tripling surplus food redistribution. The UK is an outlier in the G20 through not incentivising the donation of surplus food through its tax system. We know that similar approaches have delivered results elsewhere: France redistributes twice as much of its excess food through charities as the UK does, and the United States redistributes over four times as much. The Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic and the Global FoodBanking Network, through their collaboration on the Global Food Donation Policy Atlas, track policy best practice around the world in this space and have recommended that the UK incentivise surplus food redistribution through tax. 

This small change would have revolutionary results and enable us to deliver even more impact across the United Kingdom. 

We await the Chancellor’s response.