Marks & Spencer Ireland is looking for charities and community groups in Kerry to join its food redistribution scheme.

Groups can, free of charge, get quality M&S food from the Killarney store, for the people they work with.

The M&S food redistribution programme has been running since 2015 with its redistribution partner Neighbourly and is designed to eliminate food waste and to link stores with local communities to donate food to those in need.

In 2022 and 2023, M&S has saved 270 tonnes of food, equating to 642,828 meals, from going to waste across Ireland through the scheme.

The programme uses technology which notifies M&S’ charity partners of anything unsold at the end of the day that can be collected from their local store. The technology also allows stores to donate products where the packaging is damaged, but the food inside is safe and good quality.

M&S is now calling on new community groups in Kerry to join the programme to receive the quality surplus produce from M&S Killarney and ensure that surplus food goes to those in need.

“At M&S we are committed to eliminating food waste as part of our Plan A sustainability strategy, which sets out how we will become a zero-waste organisation. Part of our work in this area means ensuring that all surplus food produce gets redistributed to communities in Kerry and across Ireland.” said Eddie Murphy, Trading Director at M&S Ireland.

“We work hard to make the food we produce and stock the very best, and our partnership with Neighbourly provides that produce to the people who need it. We know there are more people that we can be helping, so we want to hear from community groups doing incredible work in the community about how we can support them with our surplus produce.”

M&S is calling for new charity and community partners to work with, and calling charities and community groups in Kerry to get in touch at www.neighbouly.com.