Angers as Marks and Spencer Bin Food Meant for Charity

Anger as Marks and Spencer Bin Food Meant for Charity

Marks & Spencer has been on the receiving end of some anger after one of its stores threw £10,000 worth of food in the bin on Christmas Eve, after they had pledged to donate it to charity. Most of the food had not reached its use-by dates.

The M&S Simply Food store in Swiss Cottage, North London, threw the food away, despite being located in close proximity to charities that were helping the homeless.

Seven wheelie bins were filled full of the food before the store closed for 2 days for Christmas, and the items that were thrown away included chicken fillets, burgers, and fruit and vegetables.

This is not the first time that this has happened. About a month ago, the M&S store in High Street in Kensington was caught on camera throwing food away.

There has been an angry reaction to the waste, especially when there are so many people in need who could have had it.

What about ‘Plan A?’

Marks & Spencer runs an initiative called Plan A which is designed to help the environment and the local and global communities in which it operates and where their suppliers are based. Plan A includes a nationwide scheme where unsold food from 700 of its stores gets donated to charities. However, some of the company’s Simply Food stores are franchises, so they are not involved in the initiative. But the Swiss Cottage store is not a franchise, so why the food did not go to charity is a mystery.

On Christmas Day, hundreds of homeless people were given a free Christmas meal at Euston Station, and much of the food was donated by local businesses. Why then, did the nearby M&S store throw so much away?

M&S investigates

The company has launched an investigation into why the shocking amount of food was thrown away. They insist that they have stringent processes in place to minimise food waste, and that they work hard to give unsold food to people who might need it. They stated they were looking into what happened at the Swiss Cottage store.