SURPLUS TO SUPPER

Claire Hopkins is the Co-Founder and Operations Director of Surplus to Supper, an organisation that logistically redistributes surplus food from local supermarkets to where it is most needed in the local community.

Having left her top business job with the aim of doing something that would make a real difference, Claire took over running her local foodbank in Sunbury, Middlesex, in 2016, transforming it into a community foodbank hub in 2017.

The mission of Surplus to Supper is to bridge the gap between food waste and food poverty. A team of passionate staff and volunteers work seven days a week moving up to ten tons of food to eighty-plus locations including food banks, schools, charities, churches, shelters, and other areas within a five-mile radius. Unlike other food distribution centres, they do not charge for the redistribution of surplus food.

Food is donated from partner agencies, including Tesco, Greggs, British Airways, Costa Coffee and Nando’s, among others. Claire emphasises that the food is not bad or out of date; it is simply surplus from companies that have too much to be sold and would otherwise go to waste.

Claire tells us about the positive feedback Surplus to Supper has received from the communities they support. For example, schools have indicated that students have been showing up for school on time, have been receiving fewer detentions, and are able to focus better in class because of the availability of food at the start of their day.

In addition to food distribution, Surplus to Supper runs its own shop, which the general public can visit on weekends, purchasing products as needed in return for a nominal donation that helps to keep the organisation running. They offer a supply of merchandise ranging from clothes to hair, personal hygiene and skincare products.

Surplus to Supper also runs a café, on a “buy one, feed one” basis. On average, over one thousand meals a month are made, and any extra food made in the cafe is put into tubs to be frozen and delivered to charities. Surplus to Supper also offers meals for events and fine dining experiences as part of their “buy one, feed one” initiative.

For Claire, the days are long, but rewarding (with a first message of the day typically received at 5.30 am, and the last message of the day coming through at half past 11 at night). She expresses that the support from the volunteers and community is what keeps the organisation going. She invites anyone interested in helping out to contact Surplus to Supper for further information, saying that there is always a variety of tasks to be completed and conveys how rewarding it is to help out your community.

www.surplustosupper.org