The local Tesco in Peebles has organised an informative event to celebrate the supermarket’s surplus food donation scheme.

The store is joining other Tesco’s across the UK this weekend to commend four years of the Community Food Connection scheme.

On Saturday, June 1, staff will showcase the donation scheme, run in conjunction with food charity FareShare, and explain how it works.

The store is planning to invite local charities and community groups who already receive food from the scheme to give people a chance to speak with them as well, hoping to encourage more to sign up.

Alec Brown, Head of Community at Tesco, said: “At Tesco we firmly believe that no good food should go to waste that is why we set up our Community Food Connection scheme, which ensures that our surplus food is put to good use in the local community.

“This weekend we are celebrating four years of the scheme with our colleagues and customers and we hope this will encourage more groups to sign up so that even more surplus food benefits local groups.”

The scheme enables Tesco stores across the country to donate surplus food at the end of the day to charities and local groups.

The groups are notified through an innovative app, developed by social enterprise FoodCloud, which lets them know about the food available for collection.

More than 7,000 groups are currently able to pick up free food from their local Tesco store.

Since the scheme began, Tesco has donated more than 36 million meals to those groups, with more than a million meals a month now being donated.

The Peebles Superstore has donated 1,977 meals to date.

FareShare Chief Executive, Lindsay Boswell, said: “The food that Tesco donates makes a really makes a big difference to local charities and communities across the UK.

“We are proud to have been able to work with Tesco over the past four years to create this pioneering scheme, which is the biggest of its kind in the UK.

“We hope that by celebrating this milestone with Tesco colleagues and customers we can reach out to even more charities and community groups so that they can receive the free surplus food that Tesco is able to offer.”

To find out more details about Community Food Connection and how local groups can benefit you can visit the Peebles store on Saturday, June 1 or visit www.tesco.com/community-food-connection.