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FareShare South West

We join up the dots between hunger and food waste in the South West. Each year, we redistribute over 1,000 tonnes of quality surplus food to over 400 schools, charities and community groups. They in turn serve up meals to the most vulnerable in our region.

www.faresharesouthwest.org.uk/ Fundraise for us

Registered charity no. 1125905

Member since January 2020

About us

FareShare South West (FSSW) is the region's leading food distribution charity. We work to fight hunger in our region by tackling food waste. Established in 2007, our team of volunteers saves hundreds of tonnes of good quality, in-date surplus food each year and redistribute it to organisations supporting the most vulnerable across our region. This includes homeless shelters, lunch clubs for the elderly, children's Breakfast Clubs and food parcels for families in crisis. Our partner organisations are charities, community groups and schools embedded in the local community – using local expertise and lived experience, they transform the food we provide healthy meals whilst providing wrap-around support.

Last year in response to the demand for our services caused by the pandemic, we scaled up our operations. We transitioned quickly to a fully functional emergency operation that included overhauling entire processes, securing temporary warehouses, extra vans and training a new fleet of volunteers. In 2020-21 we supported over 400 front-line groups delivering food for 6.1 million meals – six times our output from the previous year. Half of the food we provided was to families and children in need through schools, children's centres, pantry schemes and holiday projects.

This year with uncertainties around jobs, economy and support services, the demand for our food increases. FSSW are committed to building long term, strategic and sustainable models to embed food support into our local communities, ensuring we can continue at our current levels of activity, delivering food for over 50,000 meals each week.