WRAP launches £3.25m Covid-19 Emergency Surplus Food grants

Defra is making £3.25m available through the Resource Action Fund as Covid-19 Emergency Surplus Food Grants.

The aim of the grants (England only) is to provide vital financial support to not-for-profit organisations who can redistribute surplus food from retailers, wholesalers, and food manufacturers, to people in need or those considered vulnerable.

The grant scheme has two strands:

• Grants of between £5,000 to £10,000 for micro-to-small sized not-for-profit organisations that currently operate food redistribution activity.
• Grants of up to £50,000 for medium- to large-scale not-for-profit organisations that currently operate food redistribution activity.

Grants can provide funding support to help deal with any increased demand and capacity issues, additional resource, or costs for transporting the surplus food from the food business to a charity or beneficiary.

The grants scheme is unable to fund kitchen facilities for meal preparations, cooking, or onward giving of food through community stores, breakfast clubs and soup kitchens.

Find out more and apply

Grants are being awarded on a first come, first served basis, with a closing date of 21 May 2020 for the larger grants; and a closing date of 4 June 2020 for the smaller grants. These dates are for guidance only, and WRAP reserves the right to close the funds early should they fully allocate the budget.

Find out more and register for further details and an application form on the WRAP website.