Providing food and friendship through Community Food Connection

18 December 2018

A church in Combe Down is providing a variety of meals to the local community in Bath, thanks to food donations from its local Tesco stores.

The lunch club at St. Andrew’s Community Church has been running for the last seven years, supporting around 20 local residents each week with space to eat, socialise and build relationships. Surplus food donations from local Tesco stores in Bathwick and Combe Down, in partnership with FareShare, are also used for the church’s toddler groups and regular drop-ins.

Susie Houston, outreach worker and church centre manager at St. Andrew’s, said the festive period will be particularly productive this year, thanks to the support they will receive.

“We welcome about 50 guests for a traditional Christmas lunch with all the trimmings. In our effort to keep costs down, it is very helpful to have good food from Tesco to create a really delicious meal”

“The food we collect from Tesco enables us to provide a healthy array of hot meals to those who come to the lunch club, and the variety of food we get means we can be creative.”

 “We would definitely recommend Tesco’s Community Food Connection to other organisations in the area.”

St. Andrew’s Community Church is one of a number of groups in the area to benefit from Tesco’s Community Food Connection in partnership with FareShare, which sees surplus food distributed to local charities and community groups. In total so far, 36 million meals have been donated to more than 7,000 groups across the UK.

To find out more about Community Food Connection and how Tesco works to reduce food waste in its own operations, visit our website.