Coop Denmark has announced that it has teamed up with Stop Spild Lokalt to step up the donation of surplus food in a bid to reduce wastage.
Stop Spild Lokalt is a voluntary organisation that distributes surplus food to the needy across Denmark.
As part of the agreement, the retailer will donate surplus food from 200 stores to the organisation during holidays and on a regular basis.
'Waste Of Resources'
CSR director of Coop, Signe Frese, commented, “Food waste is an unnecessary waste of resources and a great burden on our climate. And when the donations help the needy at the same time, it makes good sense to give the food away.
“Coop is itself an association, so it is natural that we also support Stop Waste Local with volunteers with their heart in the right place.”
The retailer added that voluntary and elected members of Coop, who sit on the store boards of Kvickly, SuperBrugsen and Dagli´Brugsen, will also help Stop Spild Lokalt in the fight against food waste.
Previous Association
Coop partnered with Stop Spild Lokalt during Christmas for the first time in 2018, and saved 150 tonnes of food from ending up in dustbins.
In the following year, the organisations distributed 200 tonnes of surplus food to people facing financial difficulty during Christmas.
Rasmus Erichsen, initiator of Stop Spild Lokalt, commented, “We are really happy that the collaboration can now be expanded even more.
“Cooperation with Coop is also important because we, as two associations, share a common value of democracy and voluntariness. We hope that together we can create many more distribution points around Denmark.”
Coop Denmark has pledged to cut food waste by half by 2020 and has been working systematically to reduce wastage since 2013.
© 2020 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
