£13.6m funding launches to redistribute food from farms to families in need
10th June 2025
£13.6 million in grants has been offered to 12 food charities across England to redistribute an estimated 19,000 tonnes of food directly from farms to help families and fight food poverty in communities.
DEFRA announced today that thousands of tonnes of nutritious food that would otherwise go to waste will help families facing food insecurity, thanks to new grants offered to a number of charities, including City Harvest, Food in Community and FareShare.
Under the government’s Plan for Change, the Tackling Food Surplus at the Farm Gate scheme was set up to help charities in England boost their relationships with farmers.
This will see more farm gates opened to organisations who will ensure edible food that might have been left in fields instead ends up on the nation’s plates, DEFRA said.
Community kitchens, food banks, shelters and cookery projects across the country are all set to receive food through these organisations thanks to the grant scheme.
Waste minister Mary Creagh explained that the 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.
“I am delighted to see this support go to 12 outstanding redistribution charities to form closer relationships with our hard-working farmers, and ensure their good food goes to those in need,” she continued.
‘A real success story’
Sarah Calcutt, CEO of City Harvest, said: “We grow a frankly amazing range of fruits and veg in this country, from berries to spuds and brassicas to salads; but the truth is, as any farmer will testify, that a significant percentage of the food we grow will go to waste, and the reasons for this waste are often around shape and size not meeting retailer specifications rather than anything to do with health or nutrition.
“This new funding will allow us to increase the amount of food we pick up directly from farms, reduce farm costs and increase further the amount of fresh food we can offer our customers.”
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, the government confirmed.
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.”
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