In 2020, following the outbreak of COVID-19, Macphie began supporting FareShare – the UK’s longest running charitable food redistribution network.
Established in 1994, FareShare’s aim is to fight hunger and tackle food waste in the United Kingdom. They achieve this by partnering with food industry organisations to acquire high-quality surplus food that would otherwise go to waste, and distributing it to charities and community groups across the UK, including foodbanks, homeless shelters, day centres, women’s refugee centres and children’s breakfast clubs. To view their theory of change, click here.
The charity was originally established by another homelessness charity, Crisis, who partnered with Sainsbury’s to co-ordinate the redistribution of surplus food.
In 2004, FareShare become its own independent charity in order to reach more individuals experiencing food insecurity and to expand its operations. Since then, the charity has expanded from operating out of seven cities to more than twenty regional centres throughout the whole of the UK, most of which are managed independently by local organisations. Together, they redistribute surplus food products to reduce food waste and alleviate food poverty.
Food insecurity remains to be a significant issue in the UK, particularly among certain demographics, including low-income households, disabled individuals, and families where no one is employed. It has been reported that over 11 million people in Britain are currently facing food insecurity, with young people and families with children being affected the most. Young people (16-24) are much more likely to report low food security than older adults, with nearly 1 in 4 children living in food-insecure households, which affects their physical health, mental health and education.
In the UK alone, over 4.6 million tonnes of good-to-eat food goes to waste every year. With over 11 million people in Britian currently facing food insecurity, it is vital that nutritious, good-to-eat food is repurposed and distributed to support those who need it the most.
For each tonne of surplus food redistributed by FareShare, two tonnes of CO2 emissions and 2.66 million litres of water are saved from being wasted.
Since April 2022, Macphie has contributed to that by donating over 24 tonnes of food to FareShare, allowing them to distribute our good-to-eat food surplus to over 942 charities throughout the UK. That equates to almost 60,000 meals!
Furthermore, our work with FareShare has ensured more than 42 tonnes of CO2e have been prevented from being wasted, helping to improve the environment.
We constantly work to provide our customers with inspiration on how to reduce food waste, you can see some of the ideas here…
To find out more about FareShare, including how you can work with them, visit the FareShare website.