Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs

In April 2020, Defra successfully mobilised a £200m emergency contract for the provision of food parcels to the homes of c1.5m of the most clinically vulnerable who were required to self-isolate at home. To deliver this food provision, contracts were mobilised within less than a week of the requirement being known, and over the contract period delivering over 4 million food parcels to those most in need whilst realising over £50m savings to the tax payer. Defra achieved these extraordinary outcomes, at great pace, utilising a range of innovative approaches to deliver this unprecedented requirement.