FareShare facts for kids
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| Formation | 1994 |
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| Type | Charity |
| Focus | Food waste in the United Kingdom, food poverty and volunteering |
| Headquarters | 19th Floor Millbank Tower, 21–24 Millbank, London SW1P 4QP |
| Location | |
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Members
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Over 9,000 |
| Kris Gibbon-Walsh | |
| Website | fareshare.org.uk |
FareShare is a charity in the UK that started in 1994. Its main goal is to help people who don't have enough food. It also works to stop good food from being wasted.
The charity collects extra food from different parts of the food industry. This includes farms, factories, and shops. This food is still good to eat but would otherwise be thrown away. FareShare then sends this food to other charities and community groups across the UK. These groups then give the food to people who need it.
Contents
FareShare is a registered charity. This means it relies on donations and help from companies to do its work. Their motto is 'No good food goes to waste.'
FareShare wants to solve two big problems at once. These are food poverty (people not having enough food) and food waste. They do this by giving out good, extra food. The charity especially helps groups that also offer other services. These services might include advice or training to improve people's lives.
FareShare is a charity that works all over the UK. It has 35 warehouses where food is stored and sent out. Three of these warehouses are run directly by FareShare. The other 32 are managed by local charities that partner with FareShare.
More than 26,000 volunteers help FareShare. They do a lot of the hands-on work. FareShare also gives advice and support to all its sites. This helps make sure everything is safe and works well.
FareShare Go is a special app. It helps deal with extra food that shops might have at the end of the day. The app connects local supermarkets with community groups. These groups can safely pick up, store, and prepare the food. This way, supermarkets can easily tell local charities and schools when they have extra food.
FareShare has warehouses in many regions across the UK, including:
- Central and Southeast Scotland
- Cymru (Wales)
- East Anglia
- Glasgow & The West of Scotland
- Grampian
- Greater Manchester
- Hull & Humber
- Kent
- Lancashire & Cumbria
- London
- Merseyside
- Midlands
- North East
- Northern Ireland
- South Midlands
- South West
- Southern Central
- Sussex & Surrey
- Tayside & Fife
- Thames Valley
- Yorkshire
FareShare started in December 1994. It was first a project by the homelessness charity Crisis. They worked with Sainsbury's to give extra food to homeless shelters in London. Early food suppliers included Marks & Spencer and Pret a Manger. By 1999, the charity was working in seven cities.
In 2004, FareShare became its own independent charity. This allowed it to grow and help more people, not just those who were homeless. Today, the FareShare network has over twenty regional centers. Most of these are run by local groups.
In 2015, FareShare launched its FareShare Go app. This app connects charities with local supermarkets that have extra food. Big supermarkets like Tesco, Waitrose, and Asda use the app. In 2022, Booker became the first wholesaler to join the program.
In February 2018, Asda promised to invest £20 million in FareShare and The Trussell Trust. Their goal was to help over one million people avoid food poverty. This money helped buy new fridges and delivery vans.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, FareShare kept working to get food to people who needed it. When restaurants and hotels closed suddenly, the amount of extra food FareShare received more than doubled. Supermarket partners like the Co-op also gave more food and money. This helped FareShare meet the much higher demand from charities. In December 2020, the charity received a £16 million grant from the government.
Between 2020 and 2021, FareShare grew very quickly. They added 2,000 new charity members. They also found 230 new food businesses to donate extra food. About 1,700 new volunteers joined, and 11 new warehouses opened. By May 2020, FareShare was giving out twice as much food as in 2019. This was almost 2 million meals each week. By the end of 2020, FareShare had given out an extra 6,732 tonnes of food. This was equal to 16 million meals.
The demand for and supply of extra food stayed high even a year after the UK lockdown. FareShare gave out food equal to 130 million meals during this time. They got help from over 40 food companies and funding from the government. Tesco donated £7.5 million worth of food. The Co-op gave £1.5 million worth of food. Asda and Compass Group each donated £500,000. Sainsbury’s gave £3 million to help with running costs. FareShare continued to grow after the pandemic, especially with its partnerships.
In 2022, the world faced a food crisis. FareShare asked the government to invest £25 million each year to help farmers give away extra food. This would make it free for farmers to donate food that would otherwise go to waste.
In 2023, FareShare and the University of Hertfordshire published a report called ‘Waste Britain’. It showed that giving out extra food saves the government almost £118 million a year. It also saves people who receive the food £108 million. This means for every £1 spent on food redistribution, FareShare creates £5.72 in value.
In late 2023, on King Charles III’s 75th birthday, the Royal Family announced the Coronation Food Project. This project works with FareShare and The Felix Project. It aims to reduce food waste and help people who don't have enough food.
In 2024, FareShare released its manifesto, “Where’s The Food? Strengthening Communities Through Surplus Food Redistribution.” This plan suggests ways to improve and increase food redistribution in the UK.
FareShare works to make sure that extra food helps people as much as possible. They also want to reduce the negative impact of food waste on the environment. They work with groups like the Carbon Trust and the University of Hertfordshire to check their progress.
Studies show that over 90% of the charities FareShare supplies also offer other support. For example, 25% provide mental health services. 46% offer advice, and 32% provide education or job training. Many of these charities (57%) are in the poorest areas of the UK. The types of groups FareShare helps include community centers, schools, and food banks.
Most of the food FareShare provides (94%) is good, extra food. By stopping this food from being wasted, FareShare prevents 106,000 tonnes of CO2e emissions. It also saves 141 billion liters of water.
Through its network, FareShare helps over 8,000 charities. This reaches about 1 million people each year. In 2023/2024, FareShare gave out over 57,000 tonnes of food. This is equal to 135 million meals. Over the past 30 years, FareShare has provided food equal to 236.8 million meals. This has saved charities £179.9 million in costs.
Campaigns and Projects
Since 2012, Tesco has worked with FareShare to help give out extra food. Tesco and FareShare, along with the Trussell Trust, started the Tesco Food Collection in 2012. In 2023, this project collected food equal to 528,187 meals.
In 2018, FareShare launched its #ActiveAte campaign. This campaign helps children who might not have enough food during school holidays. England footballer Marcus Rashford noticed this campaign in March 2020. He became a FareShare ambassador that same year. Marcus and FareShare then led the Child Food Poverty Taskforce. In 2021, they successfully asked the government to extend a voucher scheme for free school lunches. They also helped get a Winter Package to support children through the winter of 2020.
In 2019, the government funded a trial program for FareShare and The Felix Project. This program helped give out extra food from farms. Between 2018 and 2019, it helped FareShare deliver 4,447 tonnes of extra food. This was equal to 10.5 million meals. However, the funding stopped after 2019.
In response, FareShare launched the 2021 Food on Plates campaign. They asked the government for £5 million a year. This money would help farmers cover the costs of storing and moving unsold food safely. This campaign led to FareShare’s 2023 ‘Where’s the Food?’ campaign. The main goal was to get the government funding back. In 2024, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that the government would give £15 million for farm-level food redistribution.
FareShare also runs a program called ‘’FareChance’’. This is a 10-week program that trains young people in their warehouses. It helps them learn skills for jobs.
Since it started, FareShare has worked with many partners. These include farmers, wholesalers, and supermarkets. Big supermarket partners include Tesco, Asda, and Sainsbury’s. Through Tesco, FareShare also works with the wholesaler Booker Group. Tesco bought Booker in 2017.
Tesco and FareShare have worked together on many projects. Tesco’s Little Helps Sustainability Plan has given out over 100 million meals. This has gone to about 20,000 UK charities over the last eight years. In 2015, Tesco was one of the first to use FareShare Go. The program is active in all of Tesco’s 2,764 stores. This means Tesco donates almost 2 million pounds of food every month. During the first year of the pandemic, Tesco helped FareShare greatly increase its food distribution. They donated food equal to 4.5 million meals in early 2020. Tesco continues to be one of FareShare’s biggest partners.
Other food manufacturer partners include Nestle, Muller, and Premier Foods. In November 2022, Premier Foods started a five-year plan with FareShare. They aim to donate 1 million meals and host 1,000 volunteer days each year. By January 2024, Premier Foods had provided about 746,000 meals. In May 2024, manufacturers Arla and Nestle also decided to work more closely with FareShare. They announced they would donate food equal to 1.25 million breakfasts. Nestle has donated food equal to over 6 million meals since 2005. Arla has donated food equal to 10 million meals.
In 2022, FareShare also started working with restaurants like KFC and Nando’s through FareShare Go. KFC and Nando’s donate their extra chicken. Nando’s had been doing this for over ten years with their ‘No Chuckin’ Our Chicken’ program. Nando’s also helped start FareShare’s UK employment program. This program helps people get jobs.
FareShare also works with other food aid charities. These include The Trussell Trust and The Felix Project.
Awards and Recognition
Over its 30-year history, FareShare has won many awards for its charity work.
- 2010: Won “Britain’s Most Admired Charity” at the Third Sector Awards.
- 2017: Won “Charity of the Year” at the Charity Times Awards.
- 2017: Won “Charity of the Year” at the Third Sector Awards.
- 2018: Won the “Best Social Enterprise Award” at the Foodism 100 Awards.
- 2018: Won “Partnership of the Year” at Ethical Corporation’s 9th Responsible Business Awards.
- 2018: Won “Best Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative” for FareShare Go at the World Food Innovation Awards.
- 2019: Won “Campaign of the Year” at the Food and Drink Federation’s Awards for the “Feed People First” campaign.
- 2019: Won an award for “Corporate National Partnership with a Retailer” at the Charity Times Awards with Asda and the Trussell Trust for ‘Fight Hunger Create Change.’
- 2019: Won the “Consortium” award at the Business Charity Awards for the ‘Fight Hunger Create Change’ partnership.
- 2019: Won the “Special Partnership Award” at the British Poultry Awards.
- 2021: Won “Charity of the Year: with an income of more than £10 million” and “Corporate National Partnership of the Year with a Retailer” for its work with Asda and the Trussell Trust at the Charity Times Awards.
- 2021: Won the “Campaign of the Year” award at the Sheila McKechnie National Campaigner Awards for the school meals campaign with Marcus Rashford MBE.
- 2021: Won the “Community Partner Award” at the Food and Drink Federation Awards for its work during the Covid-19 pandemic.
- 2022: Won the Charity Awards “Environment and Conservation Award” at the Charity Awards.
- 2022: Won the “Food Redistribution Award” with KRC and UK&I at Food Service Waste Management and Prevention Awards.
- 2022: Won “Corporate National Partnership of the Year with a Retailer” for its partnership with Tesco at the Charity Times Awards.
- 2024: Highly Commended for "Communications Campaign of the Year" at the Third Sector Awards for the Where's The Food? campaign with The Felix Project.
- 2024: Won "Campaigning Team of the Year" at the Charity Times Awards for the Where's The Food? campaign with The Felix Project.
- 2024: Won "Best Environmental Purpose Campaign" at the PR Week Awards for the Where's The Food? campaign with The Felix Project.
See also
- Food waste in the United Kingdom
- Hunger in the United Kingdom
- Poverty in the United Kingdom
