Coca-Cola Europacific Partners GB (CCEP) has reached a new milestone of providing seven million surplus soft drinks to food redistribution charity FareShare since 2017.
The milestone coincides with FareShare’s 30th anniversary and marks seven years of the partnership with the GB Coca-Cola bottler.
CCEP aims to maximise the impact of its surplus drinks, ensuring that products which might otherwise go to waste are instead diverted to support the many charities in FareShare’s network. Redistributing surplus drinks also aligns with CCEP’s wider sustainability target to reduce food waste in its operations by 50% by 2030 in GB. As a longstanding partner of FareShare,
CCEP’s donations have reached more than 7,000 charities and community groups. These include supporting over 500 homeless charities, and nearly 400 charities working with community groups supporting elderly people.
Beyond surplus stock donations, CCEP expanded its support for FareShare this year through a collaboration with Tesco. For every 24-pack of 330ml Diet Coke or Coca-Cola Zero Sugar cans sold, 20p was donated to FareShare – enough to redistribute one meal (as per WRAP’s guidance). The initiative raised £35,000, equivalent to 175,000 meals.
Looking ahead to Christmas, CCEP will partner with grocery and wholesale partners on further in-store promotions to boost awareness and donations for FareShare.
“At CCEP, we’re committed to giving back to the communities we work in, whether that’s through donating stock or our time, to help us deliver a more positive and meaningful impact in society," said Holly Firmin, Senior Community Partnerships Manager at CCEP.
“It’s fantastic to reach such a large milestone and especially to coincide with FareShare’s 30th birthday. I look forward to continuing this successful and important partnership for many years to come and helping those who need it most.”
Polly Bianchi, Chief Income and Engagement Officer at FareShare said: “We’re very grateful to Coca-Cola Europacific Partners for their support of FareShare over the last few years. Their generosity in providing seven million drinks that may otherwise have gone to waste has helped support the 8,000 charities and community groups across the UK, including older people’s lunch clubs and community centres, all working harder than ever to strengthen communities up and down the country.”
