FareShare North West was launched in October 2008 to support communities to combat food poverty and food waste.
Over 4 million people in the UK live in food poverty, lacking access to healthy affordable food. At the same time the UK throws away 8.3 millions tonnes of good food every year. FareShare stops food being wasted and gets it to where it is needed.
At FareShare NW we distribute food to over 65 community food members and new organisations are joining all the time. Our community food members provide vitally needed meals, food parcels and snacks to hundreds of disadvantaged people every day. They work with a huge variety of people dealing with hardship, people who are homeless, unemployed, people dealing with substance abuse, the elderly, children, young adults, refugees and asylum-seekers at drop-ins, residential centres, Sure Start centres, breakfast and after-school clubs.
Our industry partners donate food, money and time. Every year our food donors deliver over 200 tonnes of fresh, frozen and long-life food to our depot at New Smithfield Market in Manchester. We receive a wide range of food - bread, meat, vegetables, cans, ready-made meals, dairy products, and drinks - we never know exactly what we'll get each week. Some donors deliver every working day, others once or twice a week, others, a few times a year.
Staff together with a large team of volunteers deal with the deliveries and store the food in the warehouse. The food is then matched with the needs of our community food members, and delivered. Our aim is to make sure that everything delivered to us by our food donors finds a home.
None of this would be possible without the generous donations of industry sponsors and charitable trusts. Our industry sponsors organise fund-raising events and give money, staff-time, and even equipment. We keep our costs low by running the service efficiently, but in order to expand the number of people we help we always need more support.
Fareshare North West is part of the national network of Fareshare, it's run by EMERGE Food, part of the EMERGE Group.
If you would like to know more please contact us directly, call Seb Serayet on 0161 223 8200 or 07917 237 537, email: seb@emergemanchester.co.uk
If you would like to support EMERGE's charitable work and activities please click on the donate button below.
Our Chief Exec recently cycled from Land's End to John O'Groats to raise funds for our FareShare scheme! If you'd like to read more, sponsor her, or cheer her on click here for more details, or simply use our paypal button to donate.
Thank you!
