Tesco has donated 61,508 meals of surplus food in Stevenage over the course of its five-year scheme, the supermarket has revealed.

The food has been donated through the Community Food Connection Programme, which it operates with food charity FareShare. Every Tesco store in the UK participates in the scheme, which is celebrating five years of helping communities.

Each month more than a million meals of food are donated – with 50 million donated since its inception. The scheme works by pairing charities and community groups with their local Tesco store.

Since the start of the pandemic almost 700 new groups have signed up to receive food from the scheme.

FareShare’s chief executive Lindsay Boswell said: “We are delighted that Tesco has reached this milestone – donating the equivalent of 50 million meals is no mean feat and has gone such a long way in supporting thousands of charities and community groups across the UK.”