Neighbourly, the innovative community-business connector with a base in Bath, has launched a service which aims to help tackle head-on the UK’s 15m tonnes-a-year waste food crisis.
Social platform Neighbourly Food will assist in re-distributing surplus food, especially local fresh produce, to local charities, food banks and surplus recycling operations.
At the other end of the problem, it will work with retailers, supermarkets, grocers, manufacturers and food distributors to take their surplus food. 
The launch of Neighbourly Food comes as the issue of waste food gains ever greater public attention. According to a 2014 House of Lords report, the UK wastes 15m tonnes of food a year at a cost of £5bn.
The Government has set a target of halving Britain’s food waste by 2025, and a petition urging supermarkets to deliver surplus food to charities and vulnerable people has now attracted over 180,000 signatures.
Charities, food banks and other groups will be able to publicise their food requirements through neighbourly.com for free.
Businesses will be able to use the service to offer surplus food, showing what’s available, its location for collection and expiry date.
Neighbourly – which connects local community projects with companies that want to make a difference through its website from its base in Bath’s Innovation Centre – is encouraging all UK charities and food banks to join the scheme.
These organisations are often unknown to potential food donors, while businesses lack a platform through which to find causes and then to manage their contributions with orderly and efficient processes.
These problems are compounded by the pressure of time, as a result of use-by dates on fresh food products.
In addition to matching food donations to causes, Neighbourly Food will support the back office logistical requirements of participating businesses to help them effectively manage and report upon their successes in food re-distribution. The cloud-hosted service is offered on a subscription basis to participating businesses.
Neighbourly chief executive officer Luke McKeever said: “With over 288,000 tonnes of food wasted in the UK every week, UK business needs to play its part and do a better job of getting surplus food to the people who need it.
“We make that process simpler and easier for both businesses and causes. Our aim is to recruit more causes around the UK as well as more donating businesses. The more people participate, the more effective we can be.”
Neighbourly Food has already been selected by Mark & Spencer to support its national surplus food redistribution scheme. The scheme will connect all its stores with local food charities and accelerate M&S towards its Plan A target of reducing food waste by 20% by 2020.
Marks & Spencer director of sustainable business Mike Barry said: “We are pleased to be the first nationwide user of the Neighbourly Food service.
“We tested the service thoroughly before committing to a national rollout. During a pilot covering just six stores, we were able to redistribute four tonnes of surplus food in three months. Now we aim to have 150 stores participating by December and network-wide adoption by early next year.
“The more businesses that use the service, the better for all of the nation’s food banks and charities supporting deprived communities.
“It’s great that all UK businesses can now support local causes and projects that re-use surplus food.”
Marks & Spencer already uses the Neighbourly social platform, along with other major corporates such as such as Starbucks, to be active in their local communities.
Since launch in July 2014, Neighbourly clients have pledged just over £2m and more than 8,250 volunteer days and have already backed 279 causes.
