Working collaboratively with partners Worldwide Fruit Ltd and ‘The Bread and Butter Thing’ (TBBT), Chandler and Dunn’s picking team has harvested over 150,000 surplus apples for redistribution. The fruit will go to 24,000 families through TBBT’s award-winning affordable food service as well as other projects, including council winter support projects across the north of England.
Every autumn there is fruit left on trees that hasn’t been harvested for multiple retailers, usually because it is too big, too small, or not the right colour. It is normally picked for juicing or to be used as animal feed.
Chandler and Dunn’s two Kent sites include 200ha of orchards, and they are one of Worldwide Fruit’s key suppliers of apples in the UK. Peter Chandler commented: “We are delighted to be supporting such a great cause.”
As part of Worldwide Fruit’s recent partnership with TBBT, the company is continuing to look for new opportunities to reduce the waste of its edible surplus, choosing instead to use it for social purposes. It is working with all its partners to examine elements of its supply chain that generate surpluses that can be eliminated as part of its sustainability drive and ‘net zero’ aspirations. The first stage of this was to work with Chandler and Dunn to arrange a final pick at the end of their fruit season, with almost 24 tonnes of apples supplied to TBBT. As a result of this highly collaborative partnership, the charity has now received almost 500,000 pieces of fruit since the summer.
Andy Mitchell, Senior Technical Manager at Worldwide Fruit, said: “We’re working closely with all our suppliers to ensure that we do everything we can to minimise the waste of our edible surplus. None of our growers want to see their crops wasted and no-one sets out to grow food that won’t be eaten. So this is an important step forward. We know that wasted surplus fruit adds to CO2 emissions and we explore all aspects of our work to ensure that we tread softly on the planet we grow on.”
77% of TBBT’s members say that using its affordable food service enables them to eat more fruit and vegetables – food that they wouldn’t normally be able to access, either through challenges of local supply or cost. By working with Worldwide Fruit, TBBT is supporting members’ diet diversity, helping people to eat more healthily.