A POPULAR retailer with two large stores in York has marked a milestone in a community campaign aimed at tackling food waste.

M&S, which has stores in York city centre and Vangarde, has helped to donate more than 2.5 million meals to communities and those in need through its food redistribution programme, in partnership with community investment platform Neighbourly across Yorkshire.

Charities and community groups across Yorkshire, such as Food Aware CIC and Gleadless Valley Foodbank have partnered with M&S to help provide free food to the people they support.

Through its programme, and its commitment to help tackle food waste M&S is able to distribute unsold items to its charity partners. These items include food products that are still fit for consumption but may be nearing their use by date.

Rona Hulbert, Regional Manager at M&S, said: “We’re proud of the role we play in our community and we’re continuing to contribute where we can. We’re thrilled that our food redistribution programme with Neighbourly has already helped to make such a difference to charities that do such an incredible job in our community.”

Whilst the food redistribution programme has been going since 2015, the 2020 rollout of an innovative colleague app which makes it easier for store teams to donate surplus food to charities has allowed M&S to respond to the increased demand for donations from groups who are helping people through difficult times during the pandemic. The app is in all 585 M&S stores, enabling many of them to more than double their food redistribution rates since launch. Across the UK, donations since March 2020 have now surpassed the 23 million mark.