FareShare Cymru wants to give a massive thank you to our excellent partners at Puffin Produce. Using our Surplus with Purpose Cymru fund, we were able to make it cost-neutral for them to donate over 30,000kg of surplus cauliflower – which would otherwise have gone to waste.  

When staff have grown and nurtured a crop there is nothing worse for them than seeing food wasted. Rather than leaving them in the field we decided that it would be a good idea to donate them to this fantastic initiative by FareShare. The Surplus with Purpose initiative offers a solution to the problem of food waste, by allowing us to cover our own harvesting and labour costs for donating otherwise commercially unviable surplus.  

Matthew Thomas, National Account Manager at Puffin Produce

FareShare Cymru believe that food that is still edible is always better feeding people and Puffin agree with this ethos. The cauliflower will now be distributed to vulnerable people here in Wales and also amongst our UK-wide network of community groups and charities. 

In an increasingly uncertain world, the opportunity to give surplus food to charity has never been more important. The Surplus with Purpose initiative is easy to administer and the FareShare team are also a pleasure to work with. 

Matthew Thomas, National Account Manager at Puffin Produce

When an estimated 2m of the 3.6m tonnes of food wasted across the food industry is still good to eat, FareShare wants to ensure that it’s never cheaper to throw away good, nutritious food than to donate it vulnerable people. 

The Surplus with Purpose Cymru fund allowed producers, growers and manufacturers of all sizes to donate their edible surplus. The fund could be used to cover the costs of harvesting, labour, storage, packaging or transporting surplus food.  

Not only do these donations help people in genuine need, but they also help towards our company goal of reducing food waste in line with our commitment to the Courtauld Agreement 2025.

Matthew Thomas, National Account Manager at Puffin Produce

In addition to being good for people, reducing your business’s food waste levels is good for the planet. Through their donation of over 32 tonnes of surplus cauliflower, Puffin Produce has used the fund to prevent 94.163 tonnes of CO2 from being needlessly emitted, and over 49 million litres of water from going to waste from growing it.  

To discuss donating your food business’s surplus food, or for further questions, please get in touch via food@fareshare.cymru