It is a staggering reality that over 1 billion meals worth of perfectly edible food are wasted by businesses every year because current tax codes, logistical hurdles, and government subsidies make it cheaper to dump surplus food into landfills or biogas production than to safely coordinate and transport it to people in need, a broken economic system that organisations like The Felix Project are actively trying to fix through campaigns like the Redistribution Revolution.
The Felix Project is the UK’s leading food redistribution charity, founded in 2016 by Justin and Jane Byam Shaw in memory of their late son Felix, which recently merged with FareShare in 2026 under the unified name Felix to rescue high-quality surplus food from supermarkets, farms, and restaurants and deliver it free of charge to over 8,000 schools, frontline charities, and community hubs supporting 1.5 million people nationwide, while also operating Felix’s Kitchen to cook fresh meals and the Felix Multibank to distribute essential non-food household items.
The majority of the surplus food rescued by Felix comes from farms and growers dealing with seasonal gluts, manufacturers and processors with overproduced or mislabelled stock, wholesalers and distribution centres handling bulk logistics, and major supermarkets and retail chains like Sainsbury’s and Ocado managing unsold stock, all supplemented by a smaller portion from restaurants, caterers, and hospitality venues providing prepared food and ingredients.
Fresh fruit and vegetables make up the vast majority of the food rescued by Felix at 64%, followed closely by drinks and dairy at 8% each, chilled pre-prepared meals at 7%, and cupboard staples at 5%, with the final portion consisting of snacks at 3% and meat and bakery items at 2% each.
Individual food businesses can sign up to donate surplus food by filling out the online supplier form on the Felix website, which allows small businesses like independent cafés and restaurants to utilise the Felix Connect Scheme for fast, ad-hoc pick-ups, while larger manufacturers and retailers can arrange tailored, regularly scheduled collections of fresh, chilled, or frozen stock transported safely via Felix’s temperature-controlled, refrigerated fleet.
Participating restaurants can support the Restaurants Feed London fundraising initiative by signing up for the annual summer campaign—running from World Hunger Day on 28 May through July—which allows establishments to seamlessly add an optional £1 donation to their diners’ bills to fund the rescue and distribution of nutritious food to Londoners facing severe food insecurity.
The initiative has attracted a diverse group of prominent past and present partners, including Michelin-starred destination Gymkhana, acclaimed seasonal dining groups like Spring and Kitty Fisher’s, the sustainable Gladwin Brothers group (Local & Wild), and major hospitality brands such as Park Plaza Hotels and Art’Otels.
Diners and partners frequently praise the campaign for its seamless, low-cost impact, with restaurant directors calling it an effortless “no-brainer” to help tackle hunger and charity volunteers sharing first-hand feedback on the impressive quality of the rescued food it funds.
