Thousands of tons of leftover food from the festive period is being donated to those who need it most, such as homeless shelters, food banks and charities fighting hunger, as part of a new £15 million (US$18.6 million) government fund.

The scheme will offer grants starting from £20,000 (US$24,806) to the not-for-profit food redistribution sector in England in a bid to tackle food waste and strengthen the links between farms and charities.

According to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), approximately 330,000 metric tons of edible food are either wasted or repurposed as animal feed before leaving farm gates annually.

While repurposing food waste for animal feed is one option, farmers would prefer food to go to people but are often held back by a lack of infrastructure. Many organizations cannot collect food from farms.

The new funding will allow farmers to buy new equipment, like balers or hoppers, to allow bulky food items to be collected or processed into parcels and technology to help donors and food redistribution charities work more closely. It will also help train more staff to enhance their IT and food safety skills.

Farmers to redistribute unsold food

The grants aim to solve farm surplus by boosting the capacity and capability of the redistribution sector.

“Nobody wants to see good food go to waste, especially farmers who work hard to put food on family tables across the country. Our new fund will help the charitable sector to work more closely with farmers, helping to find new opportunities to get their world-leading produce to those most in need within our communities,” says circular economy minister Mary Creagh.

The government fund comes after years of campaigning by several food charities and organizations.

“We look forward to acting quickly with the government, the charity sector and farmers to maximize the impact of this initiative during British growing season, ensuring surplus food reaches as many people as possible,” reads a joint statement from Charlotte Hill, CEO of The Felix Project and Kris Gibbon-Walsh, CEO of FareShare.

“We have a proven model that funds farmers to redistribute their unsold food, which means that together, we can take meaningful steps toward achieving a zero-waste Britain.”