The Waste Minister, Mary Creagh MP wrote to Andrew today to inform him that The Bread and Butter Thing, based in Trafford Park, is to receive funding as part of the Tackling Food Surplus at the Farm Gate Grant Scheme.
Mark Game, Founder of The Bread and Butter Thing said: “The investment will be used to expand logistics infrastructure including vehicles, refrigeration, and packing facilities and to strengthen on-the-ground relationships with growers, particularly in key agricultural areas.
“The funding will significantly enhance our ability to collect and redistribute surplus food directly from farms, preventing edible produce form going to waste and instead redirecting it to hard-working families in our network.
“It will also increase our operational capacity at farm level, enabling us to intercept additional surplus produce. By investing in infrastructure, we can now work more closely with farmers to unlock hard-to-reach produce that would otherwise go to waste, ensuring it reaches people who need it most.”
Andrew Western MP said: “I am delighted that this funding bid has been successful. The Bread and Butter Thing have been at the forefront of the food redistribution industry and expanding their operations to target direct relationships with growers is a really positive step for them, and for the industry as a whole. It is great to see a Trafford Park business get this sort of boost and I look forward to seeing what they are able to achieve with this funding.
“This Government’s Plan for Change is acting on food poverty and tackling Britain’s throwaway culture, ensuring more good food ends up on plates and not in bins.”
To tackle the nation’s throwaway approach further, an independent Circular Economy Taskforce has been established to bring together the brightest minds from industry, academia and civil society to tackle this challenge. The Taskforce will focus on five priority sectors to begin with – including agri-food – to create a series of specific roadmaps to improve and reform the approach to using materials, underpinned by a Circular Economy Strategy which will be published in Autumn.
This is alongside continued support for the UK Food and Drink Pact, managed by environmental NGO WRAP, which looks to deliver a more sustainable supply chain and reduce food waste in the home – tackling food waste and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and water usage.
Catherine David, CEO of WRAP, said: “Food waste happens wherever food is grown, made, sold and consumed – from farm to fork.
Redistributing surplus food from retail and manufacture is a real success story, stopping thousands of tonnes of good food from going to waste every year. In 2023, 191,000 tonnes was redistributed worth £764 million – enough to make 456 million meals. Redistributing from farms isn’t so advanced.
These Government grants will go a long way to supercharge more charitable networks to capture some of the estimated 330,000 tonnes of food that could be redistributed from UK farms every year – and use it for good – in communities around the country.”
You can read more about The Bread and Butter Thing here.