British Garden Centres and the leading surplus food app, Too Good To Go, have announced a significant milestone in their partnership. Together, they have successfully prevented more than 10,000 meals from going to waste since the initiative was rolled out across some sites earlier this year. 

With 40% of all food ending up being wasted and the current cost-of-living crisis putting pressure on purse strings, the Too Good To Go app is one way that British Garden Centres can offer support to their customers in each community effectively.

2023 saw the start of the collaboration with Too Good to Go across its 26 carvery sites -  Tarporley, Osterley, Chapel, Thatcham, Bressingham, Arcadia, Carr Gate, Roxton, Ramsgate, Hornsea, Horncastle, Wolseley Bridge,  Shipley, East Durham, Tring, Woodthorpe, Albrighton, Irton, Leyland, Louth, Braintree, Bolton, Gilberdyke, Crawley, Brigg and Mirfield.  These centres have handed out Surprise      Bags of food to local customers and collectively helped avoid      25,000 tonnes of CO2e emissions, equivalent to more than 4 million full smartphone charges or 114 flight tickets from London to Berlin.      

Too Good To Go is a social impact company working with companies to prevent food waste by enabling customers to purchase surplus food from restaurants, convenience retailers and producers in an affordable way. Users download the free Too Good To Go app and search for nearby businesses that offer unsold food, where they can then purchase a Surprise Bag filled with great food at a fraction of its original retail value, collect it at an allotted time and enjoy.      

Ricky Towers, Group Restaurant Director at British Garden Centres said:  “British Garden Centres and Too Good To Go have successfully reached the impressive milestone of 10,000 meals, showcasing their fruitful partnership. Our team takes great pride in the accomplishments and the food that we have saved from going to waste at our carvery sites in recent months. This significant achievement serves as a testament to our shared dedication towards combating food waste and its environmental implications. By demonstrating how small actions can yield significant transformations, we are looking forward to continuing our collaboration and achieving bigger milestones, all in the pursuit of a sustainable future.”

Sophie Trueman, UK & Ireland Managing Director at Too Good To Go adds, “We’re thrilled to have reached this incredible milestone together with British Garden Centres. Their commitment to tackling food waste has made them the perfect partner for us, and it’s amazing to see the significant impact we are driving together. Saving good food from going to waste not only carries huge benefits for our planet, but it can also be a great help in coping with the rising food costs we’re experiencing at the moment. I can’t wait to see our partnership continue to flourish and rescue even more good food from going to waste."