One child asked for more than one container of food for the rest of his family, he clearly knew that his family struggled managing money. He said “When I take this home for tea tonight, Mum will be able to go and get gas this weekend, it ran out on Wednesday” – his beaming smile told me that he was delighted that he had been able to help feed his family.
FareShare Greater Manchester has been working with Westmorland Primary School in Brinnington since 2020. We support their MORE Food school scheme, offering food support to families.
In February this year, we expanded our partnership through the FareShare Foodies cooking project. The aim was to use surplus catering-sized and frozen foods to cook meals for each child to take home.
Over four Friday sessions, Westmorland Primary’s cook, Sharon Reilly from the Totally Local company prepared 610 meals. These included ten recipes: corned beef hash, katsu sweet chicken curry, vegetable curry, spaghetti carbonara, sweet chilli chicken noodles, sweet and sour chicken, pepperoni noodles in tomato sauce, plant-based tikka curry, chicken in laksa coconut sauce and smoky bean vegetable chilli.
Sharon Reilly, Westmorland Primary School’s cook said “With the backing of Totally Local, the company I work for, I really enjoyed creating meals for the Westmorland school community. The food from FareShare was exceptional quality. It made it a pleasure to prepare these meals.”
A member of staff at Westmorland Primary described their experience: “One child asked for more than one container of food for the rest of his family. He clearly knew that his family struggled managing money. He said: ‘When I take this home for tea tonight, Mum will be able to go and get gas this weekend. It ran out on Wednesday.’ His beaming smile told me that he was delighted to have been able to help feed his family.”
“An amazing project”
Martin Henderson, Headteacher at Westmorland Primary School, says the partnership has had many benefits. “It was an amazing project to become involved in alongside FareShare Greater Manchester. Working on this project allowed me to understand more fully how much even the youngest children think about, and indeed worry about where the next meal might come from. Over more than 20 years as Headteacher here at Westmorland Primary, I had not realised how much the children understood about food costs and budgeting.”
Feedback from families benefiting from the project has been positive. One parent said, “My son ate foods that he would never try at home – it’s a great project.” Another said “Thanks to everyone at FareShare and those that donate to FareShare for making this project happen. I hope it will continue.”
If you are from a school or organisation which caters for the community you serve (in addition to school meals) and you’re interested in finding out more about our catering offer, please contact membership@emergemanchester.co.uk.
