Charities and community groups in Epsom are being urged to sign up to a scheme that lets them collect surplus food from their local Tesco store.

Since launching in February 2016, the Community Food Connection initiative has provided 11 million meals to over 5,800 charities and community groups, whose service users may have otherwise gone hungry.

The food is free, and includes fresh produce such as fruit and vegetables, bakery products and chilled food like meat, cheese and ready meals.

Andrew Yaxley, store director for Epsom Tesco Express, said: “We are looking forward to forging more strong links with local charities and community groups in Epsom, and supporting their efforts to help more vulnerable people in our community.”

In Epsom nearly one thousand meals have been donated and have benefited local charities such as Horley Community School and the Avalon Accommodation Service.

Other groups that can receive food include homeless shelters, substance abuse rehabilitation services, after-school clubs, foodbanks and domestic violence refuges.

Tesco’s Community Food Connection programme, with the charity FareShare, recruits and supports charities and community groups, linking them to Tesco stores via an app that allows store teams to alert them to surplus unsold food items available at the end of each day.

The company has stated that no food fit for human consumption will go to waste from their UK retail operations by the end of 2017.