Relationships between supermarkets and food charities in reducing food insecurity

School for Business and Society research team

• Kelli Kennedy
• Carolyn Snell

The research project

Supermarkets’ reduction schemes has been a growing trend, particularly over the pandemic. Notably, relationships between food charities and supermarkets have become commonplace in the UK, offering scope for investigation. 

Based on knowledge exchange with the supermarket sector, a workshop with food charity practitioners, literature review, and a webinar, the research team identified multiple challenges within the partnerships between supermarkets and food charities. 

An underlying challenge that consistently appeared through the project was that food redistribution - particularly unsold or unsellable food - cannot solve the root causes of food insecurity. As supermarkets look to how they can best support the goal of eliminating food insecurity, redistributing their excess food and food waste (in the sense any food that goes beyond the needs of the supermarket and their sector) is not a sustainable or dignified way to approach the problem.