M&S joins coalition turning surplus food into millions of meals for UK families

Marks & Spencer (M&S) has joined an industry coalition working to tackle food insecurity in the UK by transforming surplus food from supply chains into millions of meals for families in need.

The retailer has partnered with 2 Sisters Food Group through Alliance Food Sourcing (AFS) to produce more than 1.5 million pizzas and ready meals using surplus production capacity. The wider AFS coalition has already delivered over 10 million meals, with ambitions to reach 30 million meals annually by 2028 as more food businesses join the partnership.

The initiative comes as around 11 million people in the UK experience food insecurity, including three million children.

AFS – a collaboration between retailers, suppliers and charities created under the Coronation Food Project – focuses on preventing good food from going to waste by rescuing surplus ingredients and unused manufacturing capacity across supply chains.

Surplus food that would otherwise go unused – including ingredients with defective packaging or unused production capacity – is recovered and repurposed into meals at scale. Because the food is sourced earlier in the supply chain, it can be redistributed more efficiently and with a longer shelf life, giving charities a more predictable supply.

Alliance Food Sourcing shows what can happen when industry works together to stop good food going to waste and get it to families who need it most.

We’re incredibly grateful to our customers for supporting this in our stores, and we’ll continue working with AFS to find new ways to scale this impact.”

 

Alex Freudmann, Managing Director of Food at M&S

Customers invited to support food redistribution

This week M&S is also inviting customers to support the initiative in stores. From 27 April to 3 May, shoppers across all M&S Food stores can round up their transactions at checkout, with every £1 donated helping to provide five meals.

All funds raised will go to FareShare and The Felix Project, which together support more than 8,000 frontline charities and community groups across the UK.

Donations will help source and redistribute surplus food identified through AFS, supporting programmes such as providing hot meals for children during school holidays and community meal initiatives tackling loneliness.

Together, The Felix Project and FareShare already support 1.5 million people, yet we know millions more need help.

This campaign shows the power of collaboration – helping us rescue more food, innovate at scale and support more communities across the UK.”

 

Charlotte Hill, CEO of The Felix Project and FareShare

Nicky Robinson, Director of Alliance Food Sourcing, also highlighted the broader opportunity for industry collaboration.

It’s encouraging to see leading food businesses coming together through AFS, but the opportunity to do good is far bigger.

By working in partnership, surplus food is already being rescued from supply chains at scale – reducing waste and providing meals for the most vulnerable in society.” 

 

Nicky Robinson, Director of Alliance Food Sourcing