KFC is struggling to find charities to which it can donate thousands of tonnes of surplus chicken that has been stored in an unregistered depot during a supply crisis that has closed 160 stores for almost a week, inquiries by the Guardian suggest.

On Wednesday, the fast-food chain said it would have to destroy at least some of the chicken at a cold storage facility in Rugby, Warwickshire. It is run by DHL, the company in charge of a troubled supply contract with 900 KFC outlets.

The depot is to be registered on Thursday after an emergency visit by Rugby council inspectors on Tuesday.

KFC said it was trying to minimise the amount of chicken it will have to destroy as a result of the closures and has approached at least one food charity about the surplus.

When asked on Twitter whether the chicken would end up in landfill, KFC said it was trying to minimise wastage.

Some will inevitably be wasted, which we hate. We are working as hard as we can to make this number as small as possible. One route we are working on is donations to food charities. — KFC UK & Ireland (@KFC_UKI) February 21, 2018

But several charities contacted by the Guardian were reluctant to accept it.

FareShare, which fights hunger and food waste, was offered some of the surplus chicken but insisted on safety checks before agreeing to take it.

Alyson Walsh, the charity’s commercial director, said: “FareShare only redistributes good-quality, in-date surplus food which has been stored in a robust way.”

A spokeswoman for Rugby food bank said: “We too hate to see food waste, but we only take long-life, ambient food items – tins and packets. We don’t have freezers.”

The Trussell Trust, which runs a network of more than 400 food banks including the one in Rugby, said it had not been contacted by KFC. It would direct any KFC queries to food redistribution charities such as FareShare or FoodCycle, a spokeswoman said.

Mary McGrath, the chief executive of FoodCycle, said: “We don’t use chicken or any meat because it is difficult to handle. If you don’t know what you are doing, you can poison people.”

She urged KFC not dump any waste chicken. “They should be giving it further up the food waste chain,” McGrath said. “There is a food waste hierarchy: you give to people first, then you give to animals; the next layer down is anaerobic digestion, when it is sent to a digester that will ferment the food and turn into energy, then there’s composting and then you are at landfill.”

McGrath suggested donating the surplus chicken to a homelessness charity such as St Mungo’s.

A spokeswoman for St Mungo’s said she was not sure whether it could accept a large quantity of surplus KFC chicken.

Centrepoint, another homelessness charity, said its local partners would also struggle. “KFC’s heart is obviously in the right place, but most charities do not have the logistical capability to safely transport, store and prepare such a large quantity of fresh food,” said Paul Noblet, its head of public affairs.

“KFC could distribute it to its restaurants and cafes throughout the country, and provide free meal vouchers for people in need to access the food through these routes instead.”

On Thursday morning, an updated list from KFC showed 692 of its stores were open, leaving 208 still closed.

A consumer backlash against KFC has prompted a number of police forces to appeal to people to stop wasting police time on the issue.

A KFC spokesperson said: “Over 80% of our restaurants (740 out of 900) are now open, and we can confirm that the backlog of fresh chicken stock at the depot is now cleared. However, due to the ongoing distribution challenges DHL is experiencing, disruption to some restaurants may continue through the weekend, which means some will not be open and others will operate with a reduced menu or shortened hours.

“We’re immensely grateful to our amazing team members and franchise partners who continue to work flat out to get back up and running.”