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Supporting FareShare during the Covid-19 pandemic

Words by Molly

23 April 2020 | 

3 mins

It can be easy to get lost in negative news stories at the moment, so we’d like to share some positive news with you this week.

As you may know, we’ve been partnered with the food bank charity FareShare South West for the past two years. Over this time we’ve donated our surplus meat and fish to ensure the most vulnerable people in our society still have access to a nutritious meal.

Who are FareShare South West?

FareShare are a UK based charity aiming to tackle food poverty and reduce food wastage. The team do this by saving high-quality surplus food (that would have otherwise gone to waste) and re-distributing this to charities and community groups across the UK. In the years 2018-2019 this prevented 20,000 tonnes of food going to waste, feeding millions of vulnerable people in the process.

To ensure that vulnerable people all over the country have access to nutritious food, FareShare operate from regional centres. We partnered with FareShare South West, based in Bristol, to support the local charities and wider community close to our Somerset base. This could be anything from homeless shelters, to community cafes and elderly people’s lunch clubs.

Food waste is a huge issue with vast environmental consequences. To know that we are reducing this, whilst simultaneously providing those in need with a nutritious meal, is immensely rewarding.

FareShare South West’s Coronavirus Emergency Appeal

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, FareShare South West launched an emergency appeal. I’m sure we’ve all been aware of the impact of this global pandemic on our food supply chain, with the near complete apocalypse of tinned goods and empty supermarket shelves. Food bank charities like FareShare South West, though you might not immediately realise it, also became a casualty of this.

Limited food supply (via our usual supply chains) and the subsequent knock-on effect on our vulnerable people was huge. These are people who have no budget to stockpile, isolated elderly people who are unable to get to the shops, and homeless people faced with food bank closures. Not only contesting with food shortages, FareShare South West suddenly became reliant on a greater number of distribution volunteers, directly as a result of social distancing measures. The impact could have been catastrophic for both our vulnerable people and national food wastage.

Supporting our wider community

We wanted to do our bit in supporting the wider community as much as we could, and we knew there was an opportunity here to give something back. So, throughout this time, we are continuing to donate much-needed funds, as well as our free-range British meat and sustainable fish to FareShare South West. On top of this, we have created a new donation initiative that allows our customers the chance to donate when placing their order.

100,000 meals for those in need

So far, with the help of our customers, we’ve raised enough for 100,666 meals with FareShare South West. This is an absolutely phenomenal number and we have been blown away by the generosity and support of our customers – we can’t wait to see this number grow even further, helping thousands of vulnerable people in the process.

In times of adversity, there are so many incredible acts of kindness that need to be celebrated. A huge thank you from all of us here at Field & Flower.

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