Oxford Food Bank founder Robin Aitken on ‘hero suppliers’ who are helping the poor

The Oxford Food Bank started back in 2009 with the idea of collecting surplus fresh food from local retailers and wholesalers and then distributing it to local charities. From small beginnings the OFB has grown into a large voluntary organisation which in the past year has provided more than 60 local charities with regular supplies of food.

Every week it gives away about 10 tons of food; that’s about £1.25 million worth over the last year.

And it’s companies like Roots that makes it all possible. The story starts back in 2010 when the Oxford Food Bank had been going for about 18 months.

It was a Bank Holiday when I got a call from some bloke who said he worked for a company call Fresh Direct in Bicester and asked if we wanted some bread. ‘How much?’ I asked – and he said ‘about 1,000 loaves’! At the time we were quite a small operation and 1,000 loaves was a lot more than we could handle but we went across and took some – and that was the start of it.

The man on the phone was Mike Hirons, then in charge of Fresh Direct’s Bicester campus and now the managing director of Roots. He describes himself as a ‘fruit and veg man’ but he’s also a shrewd businessman.

Roots was born out of Fresh Direct with the idea of tailoring a service specially to serve the local market in Oxford and on an unassuming trading estate just off the Botley Road, the fresh food supplier Roots of Oxford has been growing like a beanstalk on steroids.

From a standing start three years ago, the company now has a turnover of £6 million and employs 40 people. But behind the commercial success is another story of how this local firm has committed itself to helping the Oxford Food Bank by giving it all its surplus fresh food.

It’s a partnership both sides value.

So why does it give food to the Oxford Food Bank? Mike Hirons says the company promises the highest quality – which is why some, still edible, food is discarded: “Our customers pay us good money and they expect a quality product. It’s in the nature of our products that they deteriorate rapidly and when they get to the ‘not perfect’ stage we won’t send them out. It’s a fact of life that some food gets thrown away because it just doesn’t meet our standards.”

Which is where the food bank comes in. The food that Roots sets aside for the daily pick-up is still perfectly edible but not quite good enough to sell. And for Mike Hirons giving it to charity makes a lot more sense than throwing it away: “To me it’s a no-brainer. The food can still feed people and I think it would be wrong, shameful really, to throw it away rather than give it to people who need it. Put simply – it’s the right thing to do.”

The relationship with the food bank works well, he says, our organisation is now part of the daily routine. Meanwhile from the food bank’s point of view, the supplies it gets from Roots are an important part of the overall operation.

David Cairns, chairman and co-founder of the food bank, says Roots and Fresh Direct are integral to its work: “We owe a debt of gratitude to Mike, Roots and Fresh Direct” he says. “We see them as ‘hero suppliers’ and what they do has a direct impact on the lives of the poorest people in our community and also on sustainability. We can’t thank them enough.”