Birkenhead charities and community groups are being urged to register for a new online scheme which will see unsold food becoming meals for vulnerable people across the town.

As part of its ongoing pledge to cut waste Tesco’s community food connection programme has united with charity FareShare to launch a new app.

The link allows stores to alert local groups to food items which have not been sold during the day. The unsold food can then be distributed to charities.

Rifka Chakkalakal, community food manager at Tesco, said: “No food that can be eaten should go to waste.

"We’re really excited to start working on this initiative to ensure any unsold food we have is made use of.

"We are looking forward to forgoing strong links with local charities and community groups in Birkenhead, and to use this initiative to support their efforts to help vulnerable people in our communities”.

The app has proven to be a success in the UK with around 1m meals donated to people in need - a successful pilot in 14 stores last year encouraged more than 2,220 charities to sign up.

Any charities or community groups in Birkenhead should register their interest by visiting www.fareshare.org.uk/fareshare-foodcloud