CHARITIES and community groups in Wiltshire are invited to sign up to receive surplus food from their local Tesco store.

As part of its Community Food Connection scheme, which is run in conjunction food redistribution charity FareShare and powered by FoodCloud technology, Tesco distributes thousands of meals to good causes ever week.

Almost 7,000 charities and community groups already receive surplus food from the supermarket, including older people's lunch clubs, school breakfast clubs, and charities working with vulnerable and homeless people.

Now more food is available, Tesco is reaching out to groups in the country to encourage them to find out more about the scheme.

Head of community, Alec Brown, said: "Community Food Connection is making a real difference in communities across the UK, but we know there are more groups that could receive food from the scheme.

"This is the biggest supermarket food redistribution scheme in the UK and I'd encourage any group looking to use food in their work to discover how they could benefit."

The food available includes fresh fruit and veg, bakery produce and chilled food like meat, cheese and ready meals.

Groups registered with the Community Food Connection are given scheduled collection days and receive a text alert to tell them what food is available at their local Tesco store. They can then choose what they want from the surplus food on offer.

Chief Executive of FareShare, Lindsay Boswell, said: “We support many amazing frontline charities which use in date surplus food from Tesco at store level to feed thousands of vulnerable people. We know that the surplus food makes a real difference to the work of these groups, often saving them money which can go towards other valuable services.”

To find out more, please visit: www.fareshare.org.uk/getting-food/fareshare-go-support/.