More ParknShop stores to donate surplus food to needy
A major supermarket chain plans to expand its donation of surplus food from 30 stores to 100 by the end of the year, a senior executive says.
ParknShop started partnering with Food Angel, a food donation and transfer charity, nine months ago to give away food that would otherwise be thrown away. The food is packed into lunchboxes for the needy.
About 36 tonnes of food had been passed to Food Angel to date, producing more than 150,000 lunchboxes, said Philippe Giard, ParknShop's regional managing director of food retail in Greater China.
"We have great respect for the project," Giard said. "This is a fantastic opportunity to use food wastage to achieve something."
The donated produce comprised only fruit, vegetables and bread at first. The chain later included meat, poultry and packaged food whose shelf life had ended but was still safe to eat.
A spokeswoman declined to disclose the amount of food discarded each day from ParknShop's 270 outlets across the city, but said "food wastage from our supermarkets is proven to be extremely low".
The news comes as the Environmental Protection Department seeks up to HK$8.9 billion to expand landfills, which are taking in about 3,600 tonnes of food waste per day.
Its funding request is HK$500 million more than the one officials put up last year, which lawmakers rejected.
