Food Waste in a post-pandemic society

The Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 led to the shutting down of large portions of the food supply chain and other sectors of the economy. This created a significant surplus food in certain points of the supply chain while at the same time creating significant food insecurity for people across the country due to loss of income. The food supply chain worked to redistribute food through foodbanks and national and regional networks with support from WRAP, Defra, and other partners.

This event will help us gather the lessons on effective redistribution of surplus food and how we can retain the momentum as the country and the economy move towards ‘business as usual’.

Panel:

• Skye Oudemans, Senior Sustainability Executive (Plastics & Packaging), Food and Drink Federation (Chair)
• Jo Dyson, Head of Food, FareShare UK
• David Lennon, Commercial Director, Company Shop Group
• Ian Bowles, Business Change & Collaboration Consultant, The Waste & Resources Action Programme - WRAP UK
• Andrew Griffiths, Head of Value Chain Sustainability, Nestlé UK&I

Speaker profiles:

David Lennon, Commercial Director, Company Shop Group

David joined Company Shop Group at the beginning of 2021 and is responsible for creating an engaging proposition that enables retailers, manufacturers, farmers and growers to remove unnecessary waste by redistributing their surplus stock.

Passionate about finding innovative ways to reduce waste, David works alongside our partners to identify where surplus occurs and ensures that Company Shop Group has the industry-leading infrastructure and technical capabilities in place to process surplus products across multiple categories including food, household goods and clothing. 

With almost 20 years’ experience in UK and international retail businesses, David has led global teams spanning buying, merchandise planning, design, supply chain, technical services, direct sourcing and strategic change project management.

David joined Company Shop Group from Morrisons, where he was Category Director. Prior to that he spent over a decade working for Kingfisher Group and B&Q across senior category and commercial roles.  

Andrew Griffiths, Head of Value Chain Sustainability, Nestlé UK&I

Andy is Head of Value Chain Sustainability for Nestlé’s UK&I businesses, responsible for the development and delivery of the Environmental Sustainability strategy both within the operation and across the value chain.

He has worked for Nestlé UK&I for over 20 years, originally in operational and engineering roles. He is both a chartered environmentalist  and IEMA fellow, as well as a chartered engineer (IET). He is focussed on bringing together the engineering expertise, operational experience and environmental insights of the organisation alongside collaborative partnerships with academia and key delivery partners to develop and implement robust and effective sustainability programmes.

Andy co-developed the LENs (Landscape Enterprise Network) model with 3Keel, to enable effective shared interest investment, at scale, into the regeneration of multifunctional landscapes. He also sits on WRAP’s Courtauld steering group and previously co-chaired their surplus redistribution working group.

Jo Dyson, Head of Food, FareShare UK

Jo joined FareShare UK in 2018. As Head of Food, she and her team collaborate with organisations from across the whole food supply chain; from farmers and producers through to distributors, retailers, and food service companies, to help them reduce food waste by redistributing their edible surplus food to the thousands of charities supported by FareShare. 
 
Most recently, Jo was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, for services to the distribution of food to charities during the pandemic, which she attributes to the incredible teamwork of the in-house Food Team across FareShare.  
 
Jo started her career in buying with Sainsbury’s and has worked for several food retailers, most recently M&S, in buying, supply chain and logistics. She has also worked as a consultant to industry and to Government. 

Jo is also a Trustee of HENRY a charity working to give families a healthy start in life and combat childhood obesity. 

Skye Oudemans, Senior Sustainability Executive (Plastics & Packaging), FDF

Skye Oudemans is Senior Sustainability Executive (Plastics & Packaging) at the Food and Drink Federation, the trade association of UK food and drink manufacturers. She joined FDF in 2016 and her current role includes work on Government consultation responses, facilitating member committees, and engaging with a range of stakeholders in Government, in the supply chain, and in advocacy organisations on packaging and plastics policy.

She has previous experience in corporate communications and sustainability, with degrees in Food Security from the University of Warwick and International Relations from Georgetown University.

Ian Bowles, Business Change & Collaboration Consultant, WRAP UK

Ian Bowles is a Business Change & Collaboration Consultant at the UK Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP UK) and has a total of 25 years’ experience working alongside executive teams in the UK retail and food manufacturing sectors. Prior to joining WRAP, Ian was for 8 years, Head of Sustainability and External Affairs at Premier Foods plc and before this held the position of Group CSR Manager at Asda UK Stores for 6 years 

Ian specializes in engaging with large UK food businesses on food surplus and waste reduction and is responsible for helping these businesses to implement a best practice ‘Target, Measure & Act’ (TMA) approach in their UK operations, he also heads up WRAPs cross sector Surplus Food Redistribution Working Group.