From Lucy P

Sunday, 15 November 2015

This morning a popped into the Mytholmroyd branch of the Coop to get a couple of groceries. When I was paying the employee who served me gave me some free vegetables which he said would otherwise be going in the bin. I accepted them and then asked why they had overstocked. He said we always have waste. Just this weekend over £2500 of decent fruit and veg was binned because it was due to be out of date. Horrified I left the store wondering why such an organisation is wasting food when there is a high number of people struggling to afford to feed their families in the area.

I have left a message with Todmorden food bank to see if they know such vast amounts are regularly thrown away locally and if anyone is able to organise a collection. However I was wondering if anyone has a contact within the Cooperative Ethics Team as I have tried speaking to them and customer services in Manchester, as you would expect, gave me spin answers.

I was told to put a complaint in writing as they do not have a scheme in place to collect surplus stock from branches because of fresh implications. They are part of Fair Share which collects from Depots and currently they feel this is an adequate enough scheme. I find this whole situation appalling given that I regularly speak to families who cannot afford shopping that a small local branch is disposing of perfectly good food which could be put to better use.

I'd appreciate any input and suggestions as apart from bin raiding and tackling this myself I feel there must be a more civilised way of dealing with such a problem, especially since there has been such programmes on recently. I think its time we pressured the companies committing such acts to make a change and foot the cost of waste and pay for the fair distribution of it to a food bank and their local population who are struggling to feed themselves.