FareShare is the leading Scottish food redistribution charity, fighting hunger and food waste. We redistribute surplus food to frontline charities and community groups. This provides a lifeline to people, including homeless hostels, refugee centres, children’s breakfast clubs and lunch clubs for older people.
Last year in the Aberdeen area we saved 364 tonnes of food from waste which provided enough food for 843,307 meals and supported 194 charities and community groups. One of the groups we supported were Aberdeen Foyer who provide support, guidance and training to individuals aged 16+ who are suffering drug misuse, homelessness and long term unemployment throughout Aberdeen City and shire. They also support ex-offenders and prisoners either inside prison or in their own communities.
Currently, demand in Aberdeen is greater than supply and we are looking to build new relationships with organisations that might be able to help build our supply.
The process we use is simple:
- FareShare redistributes surplus food from the growers, packers, manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers distribution centres
- with the help of an army of volunteers, the food is unpacked, stored appropriately, picked and then delivered or uplifted to charities and community groups
- the groups then cook meals with the food provided for their service users.
Food safety, full traceability and compliance is at the core of the FareShare operating model. Our Regional Centres are annually audited by NSF International and we check every charity who receives food from us is compliant with food hygiene and food safety regulations. We also have authorisations to redistribute own label products from major retailers, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Co-op and Asda.
We accept foods such as; bulk ingredients for manufacturing, Packaging errors, Short-dated food, Seasonal stock, damages, manufacturing errors and more.
The FareShare ‘Surplus with Purpose Fund’ is a fund we have available which will offset the costs of diverting surplus food to charities, and is open to companies seeking to unlock new or hard to reach surplus food, as well as those that haven’t previously worked with FareShare.
If you would like to help support vulnerable people in your community and work alongside FareShare or to find out more please contact Teresa on 07494 352720 or email Teresa.mcgoldrick@fareshare.org.uk.