MORE than 55,000 meals have been provided to charities and community groups in Worcester, through a Tesco scheme.

The supermarket chain's food redistribution scheme Community Food Connection has been rolled out across all Tesco stores in the UK, including in the county.

Stores are able to provide surplus food every night, and to date more than 20 million meals have been provided to charities and community groups taking part.

So far nationally food for 600,000 meals a week is being provided to good causes across the UK, saving them money which can be used to provide other services.

And in Worcester, Tesco’s initiative has seen 55,000 meals donated to local groups including homeless shelters, community centres, breakfast clubs, and groups providing food to vulnerable older people.

The Community Food Connection programme is run in conjunction with FareShare and FoodCloud. Good causes are able to link up with local Tesco stores, from small Express stores to big Tesco Extras, through an app.

The food often includes fresh produce such as fruit, vegetables and bakery products, as well as chilled products like meat, cheese and ready meals.

Tesco’s head of community, Alec Brown, said: “We know that Community Food Connection is making a real difference to communities in Worcester by providing people in need with meals from food that would otherwise go to waste.

“Now that all of our stores are taking part there are more opportunities than ever for groups to benefit from the free food provided under the scheme.

Lindsay Boswell, chief executive of FareShare, said: “This is an incredible milestone in store-level food redistribution to charities which Tesco has made possible since developing the programme with FareShare and FoodCloud."

Charities and community groups interested in getting involved can visit fareshare.org.uk/getting-food/fareshare-go-support.