Help us get your surplus food to those who need it most.
Over 13 million people in the UK experienced food insecurity in Janaury 2023. Yet more than £19 million worth of food is wasted every year here in the UK.
We need your help to ditch that trend.
Last year we redistributed 1014 tonnes of good to eat surplus food
We will collect your surplus free of charge and get it to those most in need through our network of charities and community groups.
Work with us
We work with farms, wholesalers, manufacturers and more. We can accept good to eat food in two ways:
One-off donations
We can take one-off donations as a collection or delivery. This might be from a specific event or due to seasonal changes
Regular Donations
We can set-up regular collections or deliveries at a frequency that works for you, to help you reduce your regular wastage.
Still not sure? Contact us at givefood@faresharesussexandsurrey.org.uk or call 01273 671 111
Frequently Asked Questions
What kind of food do you accept?
We accept all kinds of fresh, frozen, ambient and chilled food and drink, including food to go (such as sandwiches and salads), bulk ingredients and unfinished products. FareShare Sussex & Surrey has authorisation to redistribute retailer branded foods.
Please note, we may be able to accept food if it has passed its best-before date in line with our our Best Before Dates Policy.
At the moment, we can’t accept the following items:
- Alcohol
- Food that’s already been cooked or prepared, such as buffet or event food
- Any food that’s passed its use-by date
- Infant formula
Please note, we can’t take surplus food from individuals.
What kind of surplus can we donate?
- Packaging / labelling errors
- Stock below minimum-life-on-receipt
- Excess stock; Stock that’s become surplus due to forecasting errors
- Stock past the BBE (see our Best Before Dates Policy)
- Quality rejections and stock which is ‘out of spec’
- Unfinished products
- Bulk ingredients for manufacturing
- Lines no longer being retailed
- Trials, samples and NPDs
- Foreign label stock
- Damages
- Seasonal stock
If you’re unsure whether we will be able to accept something, get in touch with the details.
What do I do if I have surplus food to offer you?
How do you guarantee the safety of our food?
You can rely on us to look after your food. We adhere to food industry safety guidelines and our warehouse is regularly audited to ensure compliance. We have been consistently awarded Gold Standard on our storage, wholesale and distribution audits.
Our stock control systems mean we can guarantee traceability of every item we receive and redistribute. In the unlikely event of a product recall, we can undertake this process for you. For full details you can visit FareShare’s national website.
Every charity that receives food from us is checked to ensure they meet food safety criteria before they receive any food.
Why do food businesses like working with you?
We don’t charge you to collect your surplus, and we are fast, flexible and friendly. We love what we do and want to work with suppliers like you that share our vision for reducing food poverty and food waste. The easier we can make the process for you, the better.
We can also help you meet your environmental obligations. In terms of greenhouse gas emissions, it is 17 times better to redistribute surplus food to people than the next best option, using it for animal feed.
Get in touch!
Thank you to our suppliers. We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without the surplus food we receive from them.
The Macs Farm
We are extremely proud to support Fareshare Sussex & Surrey. The team makes donating so simple, and we are delighted to be able to help whenever we can. Knowing our eggs help so many people in our local community makes us very proud of our family farm
Higgidy
As a B Corp certified business, it’s hugely important to us that we work to reduce our food waste and support local communities too. As a long-term supporter of FareShare Sussex & Surrey, we’re pleased to be able to send any surplus pies, quiches, rolls and snacks to great local causes every single week.