CHARITIES and community groups throughout Somerset are being invited to receive free surplus food from Tesco this summer.

Across the UK the supermarket giant donates hundreds of thousands of meals to good causes each week as part of its Community Food Connection scheme, run in conjunction with food charity FareShare.

Community Food Connection enables 7,000 charities and community groups to pick up free food from Tesco, but many school-operated groups take a break during the summer holidays, meaning food that would normally be donated could go to waste.

To combat that, and to ensure that food reaches people who need it this summer, Tesco is reaching out to charities and community groups to find out how they could benefit.

“While many school breakfast clubs don’t operate over the summer, we know that there are many groups doing holiday activities that could benefit from surplus food from their local Tesco store,” said Alec Brown, head of community at Tesco.

“We are encouraging local groups who do to get in touch with FareShare, to find out if our surplus food could support their work in the community this summer.

The free food includes fresh produce such as fruit, vegetables and bakery products and chilled food like meat, cheese and ready meals. Groups registered with the Community Food Connection are given scheduled collection days and receive a text alert to tell them what food is available. They can then choose what they want from the surplus food on offer.

Lindsay Boswell, chief executive of FareShare, said: “We support many amazing frontline charities which use in date surplus food from Tesco to feed thousands of vulnerable people right throughout the year. However, some groups, such as children’s breakfast clubs, close over the school holidays, which means there is even more food available – so don’t miss out, register now and become local Food Heroes.”