Last month, we were thrilled to join our Corporate Partner, Deloitte at a special evening to celebrate responsible business in Greater Manchester.
Our partnership with Deloitte was recognised at Business in the Community’s first ever Responsible Business Impact Showcase Event in the city centre.
The evening was arranged to highlight exemplary practices and inspire others to get involved in making meaningful impact across Greater Manchester.
Deloitte has been a corporate partner of FareShare Greater Manchester since the summer of 2025 and has helped us in many ways including supporting our fundraising efforts, sending multiple teams of corporate volunteers to support our warehouse operation and giving us opportunities to attend many events to promote the work we do.
Deloitte was awarded for its commitment to responsible business and supporting the local community. Thank you to everyone at Deloitte for your continued support of our work!
It’s been one week since we reached our £25,000 target in the Big Give Earth Raise campaign, and we’re still feeling incredibly grateful.
Thanks to the generosity, kindness and support of our amazing community, we didn’t just hit our target of raising £25,000, we unlocked a further £25,000 in match funding. That brought our total to an incredible £50,000!
That’s £50,000 which will go directly towards expanding our Vegelicious project into more schools across Greater Manchester.
We want to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who made this possible.
This campaign showed what’s possible when people come together with a shared purpose.
Because of your support, we can now:
Every pound raised will help us turn surplus food into meaningful impact, for people and the planet.
While this campaign may be over, our work continues. We still need to raise £500,000 this year to keep our existing operations running, so we aren’t resting on our laurels.
We’re excited to keep you updated on the difference your support is making in the weeks and months ahead.
Quite simply, we couldn’t have done this without you.
Thank you for being part of this journey and for helping us have twice the impact!
We’re excited to share that FareShare Greater Manchester is taking part in this year’s Big Give Earth Raise and we need your support.
For one week only, from 12pm on 22 April to 12pm on 29 April, every donation we receive will be match funded, meaning your gift will go twice as far at no extra cost to you.
Our goal is to raise £25,000 during the campaign week. Thanks to match funding, this could unlock a total of £50,000 to support our work.
But there’s a catch:
Every pound you give will help us expand our impact across Greater Manchester by:
Together, this work helps build a more sustainable food system – good for people and the planet.
This is a time-limited opportunity to make double the difference.
With your help, we can unlock vital match funding and reach more communities, more schools, and more people who need support.
Together, we can turn surplus into opportunity – and make every pound go further.
Visitors to our FareShare delivery yard, may have noticed some changes in the last few weeks.
Until recently, the condition of the road surface in the yard was not ideal, there were potholes and old, faded road markings meant that drivers and pedestrians had to be extra vigilant about where they should be.
The smooth operation of traffic management in the yard is vital, both for safety and efficiency. This outdoor space is shared by FareShare Greater Manchester (for our food warehouse operation and FareShare Plus community cash and carry) as well as Touch Wood, our sister organisation, which sells reclaimed wood and houses a workshop for bespoke items.
On a daily basis, the yard sees food deliveries coming in on articulated lorries, movement of food stock and timber by fork-lift trucks, plus dozens of customers of FareShare Greater Manchester arriving in cars and vans to collect food. To say it’s busy is an understatement.
Thanks to a conversation during a corporate volunteering day at EMERGE & Touch Wood, by a team from Manchester City Council, EMERGE Commercial Director, Mike Taylor, was able to secure help to rectify the situation in the yard at no cost at all to EMERGE.
Mike Taylor explains “Anthony Humphreys, Highways Assistant Project Manager with Manchester City Council, came to a corporate volunteering day with Gary Lamb, Social and Economic Programme Manager for North Manchester and his team. After a discussion with me about the state of the yard, Anthony made enquiries with one of the council’s contractors; Kiely Bros Ltd, to explore if they could undertake the work as part of their Social Value commitment. Anna Joyce, Social Value Lead from Kiely Group, came for a site visit to check what we needed before dispatching a team to come and do the work for us in December”.
During their time with us, Kiely Bros Ltd repaired all potholes across the yard covering around 300m2 before marking out bays for vehicles, pedestrian walkways, crossings and two EV charging bays out in our carpark too. We now have a much safer environment for visitors, staff and volunteers to operate vehicles and walk around the yard. This came at no cost to us thanks to the generosity of all involved.
The work that was done for EMERGE under the ‘social value’ banner far exceeded our expectations. Everything that needed to be done was done, from pothole repair to road markings.
“Social value forms a core part of the procurement process when the Council takes on any new contractor for work. Making long term differences on top of work being delivered for our residents is key, and what we have seen here has been a fantastic example of it.” – Councillor Tracey Rawlins, Executive Member for Clean Air, Environment and Transport, Manchester City Council
Under the Procurement Act 2023, which came into force last year, organisations need to contribute a minimum of 10% of their budget to social value projects, and this experience for EMERGE proves just what that can mean for community owned & charitable organisations like ours.
Mike Taylor, Commercial Director at EMERGE explained “This work is truly a game changer for EMERGE. Thank you so much to Anthony & Gary from the City Council and the Kiely Bros Ltd team for delivering this fantastic transformational project for us, the lads who came were brilliant and extremely professional and accommodating – hats off to you.
After the work was completed, Anna Joyce, Social Value Lead, Kiely Group commented, “at Kiely Bros Ltd, social value is about creating real, lasting benefits for the communities we work in, not just meeting a requirement. When we visited EMERGE and saw how busy the yard was, it was clear that improving the surface and line markings would make a genuine difference to safety, accessibility and day-to-day operations. Being able to contribute our skills to repair the potholes and deliver clear, high-quality road markings was something the whole team took great pride in. We’re delighted to have supported EMERGE 3Rs and to have played a small part in creating a safer, more efficient space for staff, volunteers and visitors alike.”
Gary Lamb, Social and Economic Programme Manager for North Manchester at Manchester City Council added, “I have been working closely with EMERGE for a while now and they always go out of their way to support groups and organisations. It is great Anthony arranged for something to be given back, it’s what makes the communities great and stronger.”
Looking for New Year motivation?
January can feel like a long month – cold, dark, and full of good intentions. This year, we’re inviting you to do something really impactful.
We’re excited to launch Miles for Meals, a brand-new January challenge to support FareShare Greater Manchester’s Winter Van Appeal. Simply walk/run/cycle/swim (or roller skate if that’s your thing) a set number of miles and get sponsorship for doing it. By taking on the challenge, you’ll help us raise vital funds to replace one of our ageing delivery vans – and keep good food moving to the communities that need it most.
Every week, FareShare Greater Manchester delivers surplus food to 60 charities and community organisations across our region. From school breakfast clubs and food banks to homeless shelters and community cafés, our deliveries help thousands of people access nutritious food with dignity.
But none of this happens without our vans.
Our fleet works hard – really hard. One of our vehicles is over 17 years old, and another has clocked up more than 235,000 miles. Breakdowns and repairs are becoming more frequent, and without reliable vans, food simply can’t reach the 60 organisations every week who rely on our deliveries.
That’s why we’re raising £25,000 to replace one of our vans – and why your steps this January matter more than ever.
This January, we’re asking supporters to travel the distance of one of our real delivery routes and get sponsored for every mile they complete.
It’s a simple idea with a big impact:
🚶 Choose a distance
📅 Walk/run/cycle/swim the miles across January, in one go or bit by bit
💚 Get sponsored per mile or with a one-off donation
🚚 Help keep FareShare Greater Manchester on the road
Every mile you walk helps turn surplus food into meals for people who need them.
Whether you walk around your local park, through your neighbourhood, or across Greater Manchester, every step (or swim or bike ride) you take represents food delivered, waste prevented, and communities supported.
Last year alone, FareShare Greater Manchester:
Rescued 2,000 tonnes of good-to-eat surplus food
Delivered the equivalent of 4.72 million meals
Supported over 290 charities and community groups
By taking part in Miles for Meals, you’re helping ensure this work can continue – safely, reliably, and sustainably.
Miles for Meals is open to everyone — individuals, families, workplaces, and walking groups. You don’t need to be an Olympic athlete; you just need a pair of comfortable shoes and a willingness to step up for your community.
👉 Sign up, start walking, and ask friends and family to sponsor your miles.
👉 Share your progress on social media using #MilesForMeals
👉 Help us reach our £25,000 goal and keep our vans (and food) moving.
This January, your steps can do more than clear your head.
They can help put food on tables across Greater Manchester.
Let’s walk, run, cycle, swim or skate the miles. Let’s keep FareShare Greater Manchester on the road.
We need your help to raise £25,000 for a new delivery van
Every week, FareShare Greater Manchester delivers good-to-eat surplus food to charities and community groups across our city – turning what would have gone to waste into meals for people who really need them.
But right now, our delivery vans – the vital link between our warehouse and the people we serve – are reaching the end of the road. One of our vans is 17 years old, another has clocked up an incredible 235,000 miles. Without them, we simply can’t reach the 60 groups every week who rely on us to deliver their food to them.
That’s why we’re launching a campaign to raise £25,000 to replace one of our vans and keep our deliveries rolling.
To launch the appeal, we’ve created a special video featuring Simon, one of our delivery drivers, Derek, our head of operations, and two of our amazing partner charities we deliver to each week: Coffee4Craig in central Manchester and the Bideford Centre in Wythenshawe. They share first-hand what our deliveries mean, not just in food, but in hope and community.
Every year, millions of tonnes of good food are wasted by the UK food industry. At the same time, millions of people struggle to afford to eat. FareShare Greater Manchester fights both problems by rescuing perfectly good surplus food and redistributing it to charities and community organisations.
Last year alone, we saved 2,000 tonnes of food from going to waste – the equivalent of 4.72 million meals. That food reached over 290 local charities and community groups, from school breakfast clubs to elderly luncheon clubs, homeless shelters to community pantries.
But none of this would be possible without our vans. They are the backbone of the operation – the wheels that carry food and hope across Greater Manchester.
We urgently need to raise £25,000 to replace one of our vans. Every donation, large or small, brings us closer to keeping food deliveries on the road for the communities that depend on them.
Together, we can keep FareShare Greater Manchester moving – and keep good food going where it’s needed most.
Looking for corporate volunteering in Manchester? FareShare Greater Manchester offers engaging corporate volunteering days that combine team building with meaningful impact, helping tackle food waste and food poverty across the region.
We’d like to say a big thank you to Dunsters Farm for their support with this project. We think it perfectly captures what it’s like to spend a day with FareShare Greater Manchester as a corporate volunteer!
If would like to get involved and join us for a Corporate Volunteering Team Building day, check out our Corporate Partnerships page for more details. Get in touch to book your Corporate Volunteering Day by calling 0161 223 8200 or email: corporatesupport@emergemanchester.co.uk.
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We’d like to say a huge thank you to Deliveroo Hop for their food donation which came in this weekend.
The food delivery company was left with £2,500 worth of surplus stock on Saturday after changing suppliers. It approached us to take the food off its hands rather than see it go to waste.
The donation included valuable food items, like meat and dairy, which is in high demand from our Community Food Members.
The food was gratefully received and is now being distributed to the charities and community groups we support – thank you Deliveroo Hop!
If you work in the food industry and have surplus food, please let us know, we can take it and get it out to people who really need it, so nothing goes to waste.
Please call 0161 223 8200 to talk through how we can help!
For more information on how we handle surplus food, check out our ‘Donate Surplus Food’ page.
Today, it has been announced that our national partner, FareShare UK is merging with The Felix Project, a food redistribution charity based in London.
What we hope this means for us will be more food and more funding. For now, though, we want to stress that for FareShare Greater Manchester, it will be business as usual.
You can read the full statement from FareShare UK and The Felix Project here.
An exciting new project to get more fresh fruit and vegetables out into the community is up and running at FareShare Greater Manchester.
The Vegelicious scheme offers bulk orders of fruit and veg to community organisations. Participants just need to commit to receive either a half pallet (400kg) or a full pallet (800kg) of mixed fruit and vegetables on a regular basis (either weekly or fortnightly).
Already up and running
Our new ‘Vegelicious’ partners are using the produce they receive to make up fruit and veg bags for the people they serve or to complement their existing food offer. Among those receiving Vegelicious deliveries already are primary schools, community cafes and community food pantries.
At FareShare Greater Manchester, we are on a mission to tackle food insecurity and reduce food waste across our city region and beyond. The Vegelicious scheme was born after we were told of the need for more fresh fruit and vegetables within the communities we serve. We listened to those requests and we hope that this is one solution.
Support from DEFRA
FareShare Greater Manchester is thrilled to have secured support through DEFRA’s ‘Surplus with Purpose’ funding which is enabling us to receive an increased amount of fresh produce in our warehouse. We know our community food member organisations would like more fresh fruit and veg and that their members are finding it expensive to buy regularly. Offering a bulk supply means we can reduce the cost and help ease the pressure.
The response has been amazing. Our Vegelicious Project Co-ordinator, Sharon, has been out and about visiting groups that have signed up so far. “People are delighted with the opportunity to increase the amount of fresh fruit and veg they eat at home and can try new things without worrying about the cost.”
Join Vegelicious
To date we have 13 fully signed up members on the Vegelicious scheme with more joining all the time. In the first nine weeks of the project we have redistributed an extra 29.6 tonnes of fruit and vegetables thanks to Vegelicious. That contributed towards nearly 70,000 meals (based on a typical 423g meal portion)!
If you are from a community group or charity which supports those experiencing food insecurity and you’re interested in finding out more, please get in touch. You can contact Sharon at sharon.robinson@emergemanchester.co.uk