This month has seen Bournemouth receive its first deliveries of surplus food from FareShare. Six projects that work to support local people in need have started receiving deliveries of surplus food to provide hot meals and emergency packages for those in crisis.
FareShare works across the food industry tominimisefit-for-purpose fresh, frozen and long-life food going to waste, and sends this food to organisations working with the most vulnerable people in the community. Thousands of tonnes of perfectly good in-date food is wasted across the country each year due to packaging errors, out of date promotions, discontinued lines and odd shaped vegetables. At the same time, there are over 4 million people in the UK who cannot afford a healthy diet, among them homeless and elderly people, children, and people suffering mental & physical health problems.
Working with the Sustainable Food City Partnership for Bournemouth and Poole, six organisations have come forward to trial the FareShare scheme. The hope is that their experience of receiving low cost, high quality surplus food will encourage more groups to sign up and benefit from the service FareShare offers.
“We are really pleased that we could bring FareShare and these valuable local projects together to launch the scheme in the town. There is much hidden food poverty in Bournemouth and Poole that often isn’trecognisedor gets overlooked. This is why we are launching a food poverty campaign to take the fight against food poverty beyond the food bank, to find real solutions to people in our town going hungry. The provision of surplus food is not a long term answer but at least it means that people in need are getting fed.” says Sarah Watson, Manager of the Food City Partnership.
Erika from Crumbs, the disability training charity and one of the first organisations to pilot FareShare says “This scheme is making a real difference for us. We’re getting great quality products at an incredibly low cost and FareShare are working with us to make sure the deliveries suit our needs. We’ve also become the pick-up point for other groups in Bournemouth to collect their FareShare delivery and that has meant we’ve also benefited from talking to like minded organisations. We’d love to see more and more local projects benefit and would encourage them to get involved.”
FareShare is looking to get more projects signed up and receive surplus food, with the first few months being delivered for free to give the project an opportunity to try before having to pay the small fee. An expansion in to Poole is also on the cards with several community organisations already requesting that FareShare is available across the conurbation. Community groups and projects are invited along to an informal Drop In morning at the Crumbs Community project to see how FareShare works, what is included in a delivery and ask any questions. The event is taking place between 10:30 and 12:00 on Monday October 5that20a Hibberd Court, Hibberd Way, BH10 4EP and everyone is very welcome.
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For more information please contact:
Sarah Watson, Food City Partnership Manager, [email protected] 07825 844326
Claire Johns, FareShare South Central, [email protected] 023 80010882
Notes
1. Bournemouth & Poole Sustainable Food City Partnership is a partnership of local people, businesses, community groups and public sector organisations, uniting to revolutionise the way people across the city region grow, buy, cook, eat, celebrate and dispose of food, see www.sustainablefoodcity.org
2. Operating since April 2014, FareShare Southern Central provides good quality food to charities and community organisations in Hampshire and Dorset. They support breakfast clubs, food banks, lunch clubs for older people, night shelters, day centres, community cafes and projects supporting vulnerable young people and those with addictions and mental health. Working closely with the food and drink industry we ensure that no good food goes to waste. https://www.fareshare.org.uk/regional-centres/southern-central/
3. CRUMBS was established as a disability training charity in 1997 and has since developed a workplace, pre-employment programme of learning. This is focused on hospitality services and is accessed by a mixed-disability workforce. https://crumbs.org.uk/
