Tesco Ireland is funding food-related good causes to buy fridges and freezers so they can receive more surplus food donations from the retailer. The Community Chill campaign aims to overcome one of the obstacles to local charitable groups taking more surplus food – their lack of storage facilities.

Since it launched a nationwide food surplus programme in 2014, Tesco has donated over four million meals of surplus food to more than 260 community groups across Ireland.

Andrew Yaxley, Tesco Ireland chief executive, said the firm had set a target that no food that is suitable for human consumption will go to waste in its Irish stores from 2020. "So to support, we're launching a new initiative to donate brand new fridges and freezers to groups who currently collect surplus food donations from us, or who want to sign up to take part," he said.

The 260 local groups already receiving Tesco’s surplus food donations include family resource centres, soup kitchens, youth services, homeless organisations, and Meals On Wheels. According to FoodCloud, the donations have enabled the charitable sector to save over €5.8 million on their food bills to date.