Marks & Spencer Ireland is calling on local charities and community groups to join its food redistribution scheme and avail of free, quality M&S food from the Athlone Towncentre store, for the people with whom they work.
The M&S food redistribution programme has been running since 2015 with its redistribution partner Neighbourly and is designed to eliminate food waste and to link stores with local communities to donate food to those in need.
In 2022 and 2023 alone, M&S has saved 270 tonnes of food, equating to 642,828 meals, from going to waste across Ireland through the scheme.
Unsold, great quality food
The programme uses technology which notifies M&S’ charity partners of anything unsold at the end of the day that can be collected from their local store. The technology also allows stores to donate products where the packaging is damaged, but the food inside is safe and good quality.
M&S is now calling on new community groups in Athlone to join the programme to receive the quality surplus produce from M&S Athlone and ensure that surplus food goes to those in need.
“At M&S we are committed to eliminating food waste as part of our Plan A sustainability strategy, which sets out how we will become a zero-waste organisation. Part of our work in this area means ensuring that all surplus food produce gets redistributed to communities in Athlone and across Ireland.
“We work hard to make the food we produce and stock the very best, and our partnership with Neighbourly provides that produce to the people who need it. We know there are more people that we can be helping, so we want to hear from community groups doing incredible work in the community about how we can support them with our surplus produce,” Eddie Murphy, Trading Director at M&S Ireland, said.
Across Ireland, M&S stores have supported 14 charities, good causes and community groups which support about 5,555 people since 2015, donating 270 tonnes of surplus food, and equating to 642,828 meals redistributed to either good causes, or M&S colleagues.
M&S is calling for new charity and community partners to work with and calling charities and community groups in Athlone to get in touch at www.neighbouly.com
