Case Study: United Co-operatives
United Co-operatives actively encourages its employees to look for ways to
assist its local communities. The Food Operations Head Office at Wythenshawe
identified Crisis Fairshare and its network of day centres and night shelters
as
a
key
partner in the community. It set about organising a pilot scheme gathering
food
past its best before date1 from a select number of stores to be sent to
local
Crisis Fairshare shelters. The Society consistently looks at ways to
protect the
environment and was keen to recycle this food which would previously
have been
used as landfill.
The pilot scheme involved:
- training employees to select appropriate food to be donated to the charity;
- provision of storage materials;
- provision of dedicated health and safety monitoring equipment;
- the creation of systems to provide a health and safety audit trail; and
- controlled and monitored distribution by Crisis Fairshare transport team to the
relevant shelters.
The pilot involved five local stores, and has been such a success that a further
15 stores in the region are being evaluated for their involvement in the
partnership.
This initiative is still running.
Gold Award Winner of 2004 Community Partnership Awards: Pilot Schemes Category
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More Information
FDF has published a booklet called Working in the Community: the food industry in action
(pdf, 1.2Mb) . This publication features a range of company case studies and
Community
Partnership Award winners demonstrating how our members are forging
links
with
their local communities and consumers.
Last reviewed: 16 May 2008