These vans will enable them to distribute more surplus food to charities and community groups that feed vulnerable people across the Midlands.

FareShare Midlands is the region’s largest food redistribution charity, supporting around 500 local charities and community organisations, and redistributing almost 6,000 tonnes of surplus food each year. Tesco is the largest supermarket chain in the UK and one of the top five food and beverage retailers in Europe.

Tesco has been working with FareShare for over ten years, providing them with millions of meals every year from good quality surplus food. This food helps Fareshare to fight hunger and food waste, and to support people who are struggling to afford a balanced diet.

The two vans that Tesco has donated are state-of-the-art Mercedes Sprinters 314CDIs, with a capacity of 860kg.

They have three separate chambers for ambient, chilled and frozen food, with temperature control to ensure food safety and quality.

These vans can hold up to 120 trays of food each, which means FareShare can deliver more food in fewer trips. This is the equivalent of delivering 2,048 meals each trip and means they can deliver an extra 532,400 meals over the year from each van.

The vans are based at FareShare’s Nechells depot in Birmingham, where their volunteer drivers will use them to deliver food to their member organisations across the Midlands.

These include homeless shelters, school breakfast clubs, community cafes, domestic violence refuges, community centres, faith organisations and homeless shelters.

By having these vans, FareShare can also reduce our fuel and haulage costs, and increase our resilience in the face of rising prices and demand.

Tesco has also branded the vans with the FareShare Midlands and Tesco logos, which will help them to raise awareness of their partnership and their mission wherever they go.

Marc Green, head of fundraising at FareShare Midlands, said: “These vans are a fantastic gift from Tesco, and we are over the moon with them. They will make a huge difference to our operations and our ability to reach more people in need with nutritious food. Tesco has been a great partner for us, and we thank them for their generosity and smooth donation process.”

Rob Smallwood, Fleet Service Operations manager at Tesco, said: “We are extremely proud to support FareShare providing meals for those that need them with surplus food from our stores.

“The donation of these two former Tesco delivery vans to FareShare Midlands will allow them to make deliveries and feed people in communities across the region more easily.”

FareShare Midlands are always looking for generous, philanthropic organisations to work with them as corporate partners.

If you are able to lend a hand, please visit this page.