Landfill food aids hardship victims

12:09pm Friday 4th July 2008

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FOOD that would previously have been dumped by a major supermarket group in Basingstoke is now being put to good use, helping people suffering hardship in Andover.

Sainsbury's delivered the first consignment of three cages full of food to representatives of the Andover Food Bank on Friday morning and will provide a similar load every fortnight in future.

The warehouse, which serves 62 Sainsbury's supermarkets from the Basin-gstoke site, is developing a greener approach.

"I'm the environmental champion and our aim is to increase recycling and reduce waste.

"We have been looking at everything we do so that we can do it in a better way," said Ian Jones from Sainsbury's.

"This food would previously have gone to landfill so this is making much better use of it."

The food is mostly end of lines or from promotions which have ended, but all perfectly in order.

Patrick Lavelle from the food bank was there to collect the donation.

"This is a tremendous gift - a real boon to us and will be used to help people who are in short term crisis," he said.

Last year the Andover group helped 1,200 people and it looks set to be even busier this year. The food bank also holds collections outside the store from time to time when customers can add their own donations.