Food waste charity opens Surrey warehouse

Regional FareShare boss Dan Slatter said the opening would allow it to redistribute more food across Surrey

A food waste charity has opened a warehouse in Surrey in response to what it describes as a growing need in the county.

The FareShare Sussex & Surrey warehouse in Guildford opened on Wednesday.

Chief executive Dan Slatter said it would help the food redistribution network deliver more surplus food to charities and community groups across the county.

"If we want to do more to meet the growing need that there is in Surrey, then we need to have a facility here," he told BBC Radio Surrey.

The charity has been operating in the county for the last four years, but out of its depot in Brighton.

Mr Slatter said Surrey had a higher-than-average number of isolated, elderly people

"Food insecurity is on the rise unfortunately in the UK, so there are more households than ever that are living in that place of not knowing where the next meal's going to come from," said Mr Slatter.

He added that there was a "higher than the national average" population of isolated elderly people in Surrey, and one of FareShare's aims was to support more lunch clubs for the group.

Michael More-Molyneux said the number of foodbanks needed in Surrey was "outrageous"

Michael More-Molyneux, the Lord-Lieutenant of Surrey who was at the warehouse's opening on Wednesday, described food waste as "immoral" and the fact that there are 83 foodbanks in the county as "outrageous".

But he said food charities were "supplying a need, and if that need is there, thank goodness [charities] are there".

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