The scheme already operates in London, now the proposal is to extend it across the whole of the UK.

Julie Alexander from Crisis explains how the scheme is helping

The scheme, called Crisis Fareshare, has been in existence since 1994, and is supported by several other large food retailers such as Marks and Spencer, Pret a Manger and The New Covent Garden Soup Company.

Sainsbury's, which has also pledged £300,000 to Crisis Fareshare over the next three years, donates surplus fresh food from many of its stores around London.

Since April 1997, the supermarket chain has given an estimated 33 million tonnes of food to the scheme.

Its chairman, David Sainsbury, is urging other companies to follow suit.

Sainsbury's is one of the largest donors of excess food

"Sainsbury's involvement in the Crisis Fareshare pilot scheme in London has shown us that their professional approach to food handling enables us to donate fresh food that would otherwise go to waste, to those who need it most - homeless people. I would recommend any company to get involved," he said.

Crisis itself is keen to spread its reach, as a spokeswoman for the charity, Julie Alexander, explained: "We are not reaching absolutely everybody, so we have to keep on with our work to make sure that we contribute even more food to day centres. That is one reason that we have taken the scheme to a national level."

Getting fresh

In addition to preventing those on the streets from going hungry, Crisis says its scheme gives the homeless the chance to have a healthier diet. This particularly necessary as the day centres and night shelters operate on a shoestring budget and do not have the funds to buy a regular supply of fresh fruit and vegetables.

As a result, three out of five homeless people lack any daily intake of fresh food and their poor diet leads to malnutrition and reduced immunity to disease. For example, one in 50 rough sleepers has tuberculosis, which is 200 times the rate in the general population.

Ms Alexander explained that the scheme not only benefits people's health but also their chances for a brighter future. "What is very important, is that the money that the shelters would have otherwise spent on buying food, now might well go into medical support, or re-settlement support.

"So it is actually re-diverting much-needed funds so that the shelters can actually go and do other services that will help people get off the streets in the long term," Ms Alexander said.

Home truths

The charity relies on around 70 volunteers to pick up the unsold fresh food, which is still within its use-by-date, from the various food outlets in a refrigerated van. This is sorted and stored overnight, and then delivered the next day to various shelters for the homeless.

In the UK, around 3,220 tonnes of edible food goes unsold every year and Crisis Fareshare is currently responsible for redistributing around four tonnes of this to homeless projects every week. In London alone, it contributes to 10,000 meals per week in 29 homeless projects.

Crisis says the benefits are there for the companies too, as by participating in the scheme and donating their excess produce, they will save on landfill tax, which is charged for each tonne of degradable waste that they produce.

The plan is to extend Crisis Fareshare centre to ten more locations across the UK by the millennium, and franchise operations are already currently underway in Manchester, Huddersfield, Southampton, Sheffield, Birmingham and Wolverhampton.