City Harvest rescues surplus food from across the UK food industry
City Harvest is a sustainable solution to surplus for the food industry, including the hospitality industry, diverting quality food from waste and redistributing it to those facing food poverty across London. When 1 in 4 people struggle to access nutritious food and 1 in 3 parents miss meals to feed their families, City Harvest’s solution is manifold.
The London-based non-profit operation delivers free food every week to over 375 community partners: schools and nurseries, food banks and social supermarkets, soup kitchens and homeless shelters, refuges for those suffering from domestic violence and refugee projects.
City Harvest currently redistributes 1.25 million meals a month, reaching 130,000 people in over 30 London boroughs, but sadly, has a growing list of people that still need help.
City Harvest works with all levels of the supply chain and partners with farms, manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers and events, as well as the hospitality industry: caterers, hotels and canteens.
For every 10kg of food redistributed, City Harvest delivers an estimated £35.50 of positive impact for food recipients and food donors.
City Harvest at Food, Drink & Hospitality Week
City Harvest CEO, Sarah Calcutt, formed part of a panel discussion at HRC Event (Hospitality, Restaurant & Catering 2025), hosted by Juliane Caillouette-Noble and organised by our food event partner, Montgomery Group.
Sarah, alongside speakers Jess Latchford of Waste Knot, and Hugh Jones of WRAP, discussed tackling food waste in hospitality and strategies for a sustainable future.
City Harvest is here to help the hospitality industry
The UK generates around 9.5 million tonnes of food waste annually. The hospitality industry and food service sector (including restaurants, hotels, and catering) accounts for 1.1 million tonnes of this waste, or 12% of the total.
City Harvest knows how much potential food waste there can be in the hospitality industry and whilst the team can’t accept hot food or food that has been served and kept warm, they will happily receive and collect:
- chilled, prepared meals in sealed containers
- packaged sandwiches
- to-go food items
- any snacks
- loose or packaged fruit and vegetables
- (non-alcoholic) drinks.
1. City Harvest is fully compliant with food safety and distribution law, requiring every product to be in sealed packaging and labelled with a title, full ingredient declaration and allergen information, as well as a use-by or best-before date. Loose fruits and vegetables are the exception.
2. City Harvest operates a strict chill chain and ensures its community partners are fully food safety accredited with the correct storage facilities to make sure the chill chain is not broken at any stage.
3. City Harvest will provide an agreement to be signed by the donor and themselves before accepting any pre-prepared food. This ensures both parties have confidence that the food will be prepared, stored and transported in compliance with food safety regulations and hygiene standards.
You can find out more and read FAQs about food donation on our food page here.
It’s simple to work with City Harvest
City Harvest turns food around quickly, especially short shelf-life surplus, so community partners receive the surplus food in a matter of days. City Harvest has a fleet of temperature-controlled vehicles which collect food locally to their depots in London but has strong partnerships with third-party hauliers for collections anywhere else in the UK, at no cost to the donor. They’ll happily arrange a collection of food within 24 hours ‘ notice.
City Harvest loves to shine a sustainability spotlight on the social and climate impact that companies make by partnering with them. Their impact report allows you to show your stakeholders the immediate impact on people, and the planet, with case studies and statistics of who your food is supporting. They report on the number of kgs rescued, meals provided and kgs of greenhouse gas emissions diverted from landfill.
Requirements for donating prepared meals
1. Certified Kitchen–the food must be prepared in a kitchen that is licensed and inspected by local authorities. It must adhere to food hygiene and safety guidelines as per the Food Standards Agency. All staff involved in the food preparation and packing must have received appropriate food safety and hygiene training.
2. Preparation and Handling–measures should be taken to avoid cross-contamination between raw and cooked foods. Food allergens should be handled and managed effectively. Temperature control of prepared food is important to kill harmful bacteria. It should be heated to the correct internal temperature before being rapidly cooled to safe temperatures (below 5°C) to prevent bacterial growth.
3. Packaging and Labelling–clean, food-safe containers that can be sealed properly to avoid any contamination should be used. A label is required on each product detailing the name of the product, a complete list of ingredients, allergen information, the date of preparation and a use-by date, and storage and reheating instructions. Nutritional information is useful for the end recipient, but not essential. For traceability reasons, the name and address of the kitchen/business should be included too. Please see an example below.
4. Transportation– chilled, prepared food must be transported at safe temperatures (below 5°C) and frozen products must be transported at below -18°C.
5. Quality–City Harvest feeds hungry, and often vulnerable people across London. Ready meals and prepared ready-to-eat foods that are within their use-by date and otherwise fit and wholesome to eat are so valuable for their recipients.
Here is an example of a label that could be applied to a prepared meal, and further down is an example of correctly packaged ready meals prepared by catering partner, Thomas Franks.
Rescuing catered food from large events
City Harvest works with large-scale event partners, like Ascot, Wimbledon and the RHS, to rescue hospitality surplus.
Ascot ‘Afternoon Tea’ delighted City Harvest’s community partners. Well-packaged and labelled catered food is a godsend for City Harvest’s grassroots charity partners, especially those with limited cooking facilities. Pre-packaged sandwiched, and other meals, are also really useful for our partners feeding the homeless. Learn more here about how we work with Ascot to redistribute surplus.
WATCH: Learn about how and why Thomas Franks Foundation creates catered meals for City Harvest food charity to distribute to its community partners:
Speak to our Food team today
We’d love to hear from you, and discuss surplus solutions for your food business.
