FareShare charity provides almost two million meals from surplus food

FareShare Yorkshire takes surplus food from the food industry that can’t be sold in shops, either because of packaging errors or a short shelf life, but is still good to eat and redistributes it to frontline charities and community groups.

The regional centre, which has warehouses in Leeds and Barnsley, currently serves a network of 231 organisations across the county, which include school breakfast clubs, domestic violence refuges, older people’s lunch clubs, food banks and hospices.

These organisations in the last year alone used FareShare food to provide 1,933,372 meals for vulnerable people who might otherwise go hungry.

The provision FareShare supplies also enabled them to make a collective saving of £1,824,900.

A national survey found that, on average, each charity saves £7,900 from its yearly food bill by using food from FareShare, with one in five charities saying that without that food they’d have to close.

FareShare Yorkshire chief executive Gareth Batty said: “Times are tough for charities, with funding increasingly hard to come by.

“The food we redistribute is great quality and tastes just like the food you’d eat at home. It’s amazing that we can take something that could been thrown away and turn it into something that creates enormous social benefit.”

One of the organisations supported by FareShare is St George’s Crypt, based in Leeds.

Francis McAllister, deputy chief executive officer, said: “St George’s Crypt works with homeless, vulnerable and people suffering from addiction.

“Being a member of the FareShare family helps us to continue providing this vital service.”