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.
We distribute food to over 50 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, Surestart centres, and breakfast and after-school clubs.
Our industry partners donate food, money and time. Every year our food donors deliver over 150 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
If you would like to know more please contact us directly, or call Seb Serayet on 0161 223 8200
