Deeside food giant pledge to donate one million meal to Fareshare

One of North Wales’s largest food producers, has pledged to donate the equivalent of one million meal portions to the charity Fareshare during May.

Ranjit Singh Boparan, the owner of 2 Sisters Food Group’s Sandycroft factory, has announced plans to expand food donations from his extensive manufacturing operations.

The move follows his commitment last November to collaborate with retailers and the food charity Fareshare.

Millions of people – including one in five families with children – have gone hungry or skipped meals in recent weeks because they could not regularly afford to buy groceries, according to new food insecurity data.

The latest Food Foundation tracker reports that 15% of UK households, including approximately eight million adults and three million children, have experienced food insecurity in 2024.

It is estimated this figure has doubled in the last three years.

Mr Boparan said: “We have a moral responsibility to do the right thing. It cannot be right that in Wales in 2024 people are struggling to feed themselves. No-one should go to sleep on an empty stomach at night, especially not children.

“I have previously committed to supporting the King’s Coronation Food Project and in partnership with M&S, we are working to boost Fareshare’s distribution efforts. However, I do feel it is time for individual companies who make food to step up and help alleviate this problem. This also requires a big effort from our supply chain and it’s fantastic to see so much goodwill and support.”

In November, the 2 Sisters owner met His Majesty the King in support of the Coronation Food Project following his pre-Christmas donation of one million portions, donated in partnership with M&S.

The Coronation Food Project encourages supermarket and food manufacturers to join FareShare’s innovative “Alliance Manufacturing” programme to redistribute even more surplus food to charities nationwide.

Mr Boparan’s food businesses employ more than 1750 people in Sandycroft, one of its biggest UK operations, with more employed at his farms spread across North Wales.

His UK food production empire spans a variety of products, ranging from pies, pizzas, chicken, ready meals, turkey to biscuits. His ready meals operation in Rogerstone is Europe’s biggest.

Now Mr Boparan has set his colleagues, supply chain and customers a challenging and ambitious target to collectively donate five million equivalent portions annually.

These donations will be through a combined effort with retail partner M&S, who will donate over one million portions.

The remaining four million will be food donated using surplus products and leveraging critical support from across the supply chain.

Colleagues at his breaded chicken facility in Thetford, East Anglia, have stepped up to the challenge and are donating one million meal portions to FareShare during May alone.

The food includes products such as coated chicken steaks, coated chicken mini fillet tenders, coated boneless chicken pieces and coated bone-in chicken portions.

Products donated from Sandycroft are expected in the next 12 months.

George Wright, CEO of FareShare, added: “As FareShare enters its 30th year it is important that we look ahead to the future of tackling food waste. We want to work collaboratively to innovate and find ways to make sure more good-to-eat food gets to people who need it, rather than to waste.

“By securing the support of partners in the supply chain to donate the equivalent of a million portions of chicken, Ranjit Singh Boparan is setting a great example to businesses across the food and manufacturing industries to share resources to help unlock the social and environmental impact of surplus food.

“We are thrilled to see Ranjit leading the way. Working together will help us combat the environmental impact of food waste and help the 8,500 charities we support strengthen communities up and down the country.”