Asked by: Stephen Hepburn (Independent - Jarrow)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to tackle food poverty.
Answered by George Eustice
The Government is committed to making a lasting difference to long-term outcomes for poor and disadvantaged families and children. We believe that work offers the best opportunity for people to get out of poverty and to become self-reliant. This is why the Government is undertaking the most ambitious reform to the welfare system in decades to support people to find and stay in work.
Defra is taking action to support the redistribution of unsold edible and nutritious surplus stock food from businesses to individuals in need. The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), supported by Defra, launched the Courtauld Commitment 2025 in March 2016. Business signatories including leading retailers, manufacturers and food redistribution organisations have agreed an ambition to work collaboratively with WRAP to double the amount of surplus food they redistribute by 2020 against a 2015 baseline of 15,000 tonnes. At the end of last year, the Government and WRAP announced a new £500,000 fund for charities who redistribute surplus food from food businesses to those in need.