Tesco Malaysia plans to expand community food donation programme nationwide by first quarter of 2017

PETALING JAYA: Tesco Malaysia aims to expand its Community Food Surplus Donation programme nationwide by the first quarter of 2017 in which edible unsold food would be given to local charities.
In conjunction with the recent World Food Day, Tesco Malaysia announced the national rollout of its programme in partnership with Kechara Soup Kitchen and Food Aid Foundation today.
"With today's launch, the programme will be expanded across 24 of our hypermarkets in Klang Valley, Penang and Johor Baru. Therefore, we will be committing to expand our programme across all 56 Tesco stores nationwide by the first quarter of 2017," said chief executive officer (CEO) Paul Ritchie.
"We are ready to take the lead in terms of the commitment and scale in which we are prepared to donate our surplus food to deserving charities," he added.
He said the donation of surplus food involved baked and fresh produce only and will expand by category to other product types as the project rolls out nationwide.
Ritchie said the food donation would be channeled on a daily basis to its partners in an efficient manner.
In April, Tesco Malaysia started a pilot programme involving six stores in the Klang Valley and distributed six tonnes of food to 102 charity homes in collaboration with its partners.
Also present at the launch were Kechara Food Kitchen president Henry Ooi, Food Aid Foundation founder Rick Chee, and Selangor princess Tengku Zatashah Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah.