Globally, one third of the food we produce is wasted. Reducing food waste is good for the economy, good for food security and good for the climate – and with awareness and scrutiny of the problem rising, FareShare poses a solution.
FareShare Cymru is a regional operation of FareShare UK – the nation’s biggest charity fighting hunger and food waste – and saves in-date surplus food from waste by redistributing through a network of over 100 frontline projects across Wales. These projects, which include homeless shelters and school breakfast clubs, use the food to create hot meals for people at risk of hunger, loneliness or isolation.
Over 500 companies across the supply chain – from farmers to hauliers, manufacturers to supermarkets and big brands to independent producers – send excess food to FareShare. Last year alone saw FareShare Cymru save over 511 tonnes of food from waste; enough to create over 1 million meals.
But despite this, the charity is still accessing just one percent of all available surplus food within the industry. At the same time almost a third of children in Wales are growing up in poverty, meaning demand for FareShare’s service has never been higher – so the charity is urging suppliers to get in touch.
Sarah Germain, Project Manager at FareShare Cymru, said:
“Surplus is inevitable, but food waste doesn’t have to be.
“Not only does redistributing surplus food boost a businesses’ sustainability credentials, it can also engage customers and staff – many suppliers say their employees are motivated knowing the businesses’ surplus is helping vulnerable people in the community.
“But the real benefit is felt on the ground. Fresh surplus food means charities can offer their clients a varied, healthy diet, and the money saved on food bills can be reinvested back into other vital services. For some charities the food is a lifeline, with one in five saying that they’d have to close without it.
“If you are a food business with surplus you’d like to make best use of, we urge you to get in touch.”
Kellie Schofield, Sustainability Manager at IPL which provides food to FareShare, said:
“Working with FareShare made us focus on what’s really important in terms of surplus and food waste. Waste efficiencies are improving, from the way we look at waste and how and where this goes, to understanding the end to end cost of alternative waste routes. On top of all that it motivates our employees to know that we’re helping vulnerable members of the communities in which we operate”
So how can you help FareShare Cymru help more vulnerable people (which given a few wrong circumstances could be you or me)?
As a member of the general public by volunteering or donating finding out more by visiting their website www.fareshare.org.uk . Or if you are in the food industry and think that you may have surplus food either on a regular basis or on an ad hoc basis contact Ashley Calvert of Landsker who is helping to co –ordinate movement of surplus food to Fareshare Cymru helping to reduce food waste. ashley@landsker.co.uk
We can all help reduce food waste so that food that is surplus can be used making food waste in to food saviour.
