Supermarket giant Tesco is set to hand out unsold food from its Ramsey store to vulnerable people in the town.

As a part of its ongoing pledge to cut food waste, the branch, in Neil Way, will work with charities and community groups to alert them to surplus food items available at the end of each day, which can then be made into meal for people in need.

Rifka Chakkalakal, community food programmes manager, at Tesco said: “No food that can be eaten should go to waste. We’re really excited to start working on this initiative to ensure that any unsold food we have is made use of. We are looking forward to forging strong links with local charities and community groups in Ramsey, and to use this initiative to support their efforts to help vulnerable people in our community.”

The unsold will be given to groups for free and will include fresh produce, such as fruit, vegetables and bakery products as well as meat, dairy and ready meals.

Working with FareShare, a food supply organisation tackling hunger and food waste, Tesco’s Community Food Connection programme has already donated about a million meals to people around the UK since the scheme was rolled out in March.

A pilot of the initiative was tried in 14 stores throughout the UK last year and provided more than 22 tonnes of food - the equivalent of 50,000 meals.

Figures released by the company earlier this year showed that 55,400 tonnes of food were thrown away at its stores and distribution centres across the country in 2015.

Any charities or community groups in Ramsey who want to be a part of the scheme are being asked to register their interest by visiting www.fareshare.org.uk/fareshare-foodcloud.