Our work with McCain Foods

McCain provides FareShare with frozen potato products and sometimes raw potatoes.

McCain and FareShare have been working together to redistribute meals to those who need them since 2013. In the past 10 years, McCain has given FareShare over 1 million meals worth of frozen potato products and raw potatoes, which have been redistributed to charities and community groups to make into meals for individuals living in food insecurity.

In the early years of the partnership, McCain’s donations were typically ad-hoc due to lack of a clear process internally. In order to combat this, they established a cross-functional account team, bringing together colleagues from all corners of the business to help fight food waste across McCain’s operations.

Adopting a more ‘all hands on deck’ approach has helped McCain to develop this partnership into a well-oiled operation, with strong communication between McCain and FareShare. Working more closely with the team at FareShare has also allowed the team at McCain to identify additional surplus stock which FareShare can redistribute to charities, for instance mislabelled products.

There’s a wide level of engagement with FareShare from across the board at McCain – a group of colleagues even came into a FareShare depot to volunteer for the day.

Mark Hodge, VP Marketing says: “As a family-run business, we believe that McCain GB has an important role to play in helping to support thriving communities. We’re incredibly proud to work with FareShare, donating over 1.3 million meals since our partnership began. We look forward to continuing to strengthen our partnership to help families that need it.”

Fiona Robertson, FareShare Account Manager, says “We are very grateful to McCain Foods for their continuous support. They’ve shown a real commitment to preventing food waste by setting up a new cross functional team internally. This team works hard to ensure that any surplus food they have reaches the plates of those who need it most. We are so proud to partner with McCain Foods and we look forward to working closely together in the future.”

Do you have frozen surplus stock? Get in touch: givefood@fareshare.org.uk