“What a truly fantastic and extremely humbling experience the Grant Thornton UK LLP, Business Consulting team north had at FareShare Greater Manchester on our volunteering day!”
Sue Ledgard
at Grant Thornton
A team of Corporate Volunteers from Grant Thornton UK LLP says the time spent on a Coporate Volunteering team day at FareShare Greater Manchester was hugely rewarding. The seven colleagues spent the day working alongside our team of amazing volunteers and employees to ensure that charities supported by Fareshare received much needed food supplies.
The corporate visitors said; “We had no idea before yesterday exactly how much the work that Fareshare does supports local communities with their mission to both reduce food waste and ensure that those struggling with food poverty are able to eat.”
One of the team members; Sue Ledgard went on to say “If you are an individual or an organisation looking for volunteering opportunities – I really cannot recommend Fareshare highly enough… we learned so much and it has certainly made me think about my own shopping and food waste habits!! Thank you so much to everyone, particularly Ruth Downes and Madeleine Daly, for looking after us so well throughout the day!”
After spending the day with us, we were able to supply them with some statistics about the impact of their contribution. Sue said “it is really heartening to see how what we did yesterday has made such a difference to so many people”.
Here’s what happened on the day the Grant Thornton UK LLP team spent with us:
We are really grateful to Grant Thornton UK LLP for their support. Sue had this to say about the opportunity to come and work with us “Thank you also to Grant Thornton UK LLP for enabling us to have these volunteer days to support such great causes and learn some valuable life lessons at the same time!”
If you would like to find out more about our corporate volunteering days, please get in touch with us.
During Recycling Week 14 – 20 October, we showcased some of the great work being undertaken by EMERGE 3Rs. Collectively, we are EMERGE Recycling, FareShare Greater Manchester and Touch Wood. We highlighted the work FareShare GM does with partners in the food industry to reduce waste and recycle food.
FareShare Greater Manchester has been working with the world’s largest pure-play contract logistics provider, GXO, since before the pandemic. FareShare Greater Manchester’s collaboration with the GXO Surplus Food Partnership has made a significant impact on food waste reduction, with GXO donating 13.9 tonnes of food in just the last year alone.
“GXO and our customer, Greene King, aim to send zero food waste to landfill. When we first started looking at options, FareShare Greater Manchester was an obvious choice due to the number of people and communities they support,” says Hannah Chaffey-Green, Operations Director at GXO.
“Working with Fareshare helps us to meet our goal of reducing waste while also supporting those in need,” Hannah adds.
FareShare Greater Manchester’s Head of Development, Ruth Downes says GXO helped us in other ways, not just food donations. “Before we had our current freezer capacity, GXO and Greene King offered us freezer storage so we could accept a large donation of frozen food. This prevented many pallets of ice cream going to waste and in turn we were able to get it out to our community members quickly and efficiently.”
The GXO Surplus Food Partnership not only helps FareShare GM reduce food waste but also ensures that surplus food reaches those in need across the Greater Manchester area, benefiting local communities. Recycling surplus food with FareShare Greater Manchester also boosts staff morale as Hannah Chaffey-Green explains, “Our colleagues love that we support local charities, and always contribute to internal food bank donation drives. We also share information about where the surplus food ends up as our teams want to make sure that we’re doing the right thing.”
Hannah says the impact of such donations are huge and hopes other companies will be keen to donate their surplus food to FareShare. “Giving a little or a lot, it all helps the local community so much. Once processes are in place, it’s really straight forward.”
If you would like to find out more about sending your surplus food to FareShare Greater Manchester, get involved to see how you can contribute. You can also get in touch by calling 0161 223 8200 or email Ruth Downes at ruth@emergemanchester.co.uk.
During Recycling Week 2024, during 14 – 20 October, we’d like to showcase some of the great work being undertaken by EMERGE 3Rs. We are EMERGE Recycling, FareShare Greater Manchester and Touch Wood. Today we are shining a light on Touch Wood.
Touch Wood is a social enterprise which rescues wood from going to waste, be that incineration or landfill. Last year we rescued 600 tonnes of wood and reused 72% of it. The rest was ethically recycled.
Earlier this year, our skilled craftspeople upcycled scaffold boards, industrial reels, part of the Manchester Velodrome track and old whiskey barrels to create a beautiful outdoor wellbeing space for Siemens Energy in Manchester.
The reclaimed wood was used to build planters, seating and tables as well as a pergola with a polycarbonate roof to protect users from the inclement weather meaning the space can be used all year round.
The whole process, from initial design to completion was taken care of by our talented Touch Wood colleagues. We’re sure you’ll agree that their hard work paid off creating an inviting space for Siemens Energy workers to take a break.
If you’re looking to revamp your outdoor area, whether commercial or domestic, give us a ring to talk through a sustainable solution. Call now on 0161 223 8200.
It’s Volunteers Week from 3-9 June and we couldn’t do what we do without our amazing team of volunteers. This week, we’re highlighting some of our volunteer roles to showcase the work they do:
You hear about food insecurity and food poverty on the news. You read the statistics, but meeting these organisations and hearing about their amazing work makes you see it for real. This volunteering role keeps me grounded. I can go home after a day’s work, have a bath, and there’s food in the cupboard.
Sally
FareShare Plus Volunteer
Sally, a retired primary school headteacher, has been volunteering for FareShare Greater Manchester for more than 3 ½ years. After her retirement, Sally was looking for a new purpose. She wanted to give something back.
In teaching, Sally saw the impact of food insecurity and poverty on not only the children but the parents too. Her school’s policy was that no child should begin the day without food, so it provided wraparound care with breakfast and afterschool clubs.
As a ‘Green Flag School’ it followed environmental guidelines for reuse and recycling, (food waste being one of those issues). Some of her pupils visited FareShare Greater Manchester on a school trip. They looked at the redistribution of surplus food and other operations at our warehouse.
Retiring in the middle of the pandemic, Sally felt that by volunteering for FareShare Greater Manchester, she could do something positive. She knew how hard it can be to enlist the help of volunteers in schools. Sally imagined it was hard for charities too. She met our head of volunteering, Liz, and says on the first day she knew, “I need to do this!”
Sally believes it was only natural that she should become a volunteer for FareShare Greater Manchester. We share the same ethos of supporting families and the wider community, combating food waste and education.
Volunteering here has been a complete change from her previous career. She moved from working in a school environment to warehouse work in all weathers. However, Sally, a FareShare Plus volunteer, really enjoys it. “I love meeting people. I enjoy chatting to the charities and organisations who come to FareShare Plus to collect the food. They come from all walks of life and different backgrounds. It’s fascinating to hear about the work they’re doing in their own communities. You only hear about the big charities on the news, but the work the grassroots charities are doing is so important.”
Sally’s previous teaching and management skills have been transferable to her current role in FareShare Plus. However, all volunteers receive full training before they begin. This training includes food safety, manual handling, and other aspects involved in the role. Sally says the encouragement volunteers are given is brilliant. “Lots of volunteers go on to secure paid roles both here at FareShare and elsewhere. It helps improve your CV and really boosts your confidence. Many people come to volunteer after being out of work for a time. It can be a stepping stone to something else.”
Another benefit for Sally was physical. “My fitness levels went up. Volunteering here two days a week meant I didn’t need to go to the gym!” She also says it puts a lot of things into perspective for her. “You hear about food insecurity and food poverty on the news. You read the statistics, but to meet these organisations and hear about the amazing work they are doing makes you see it for real. This volunteering role keeps me grounded. I can go home after a day’s work, have a bath, and there’s food in the cupboard. Not everyone is as fortunate as that.”
Sally’s service to FareShare Greater Manchester was recognised in 2023 in a special FareShare UK Volunteers Celebration. “I was honoured to be nominated for the FareShare UK Volunteer Awards last year for Leadership in Volunteering – and I won it! The FareShare Plus team was also nominated for an award and won.”
If you are considering volunteering, Sally has this advice: “Do it! You need to be committed, but there’s flexibility to make the role work around you and your needs. Different personalities suit different jobs. The role can be tailor-made for you. I’m really sociable and love meeting all the customers. Other people prefer a job in the warehouse preparing the food for dispatch instead. You get out of it what you put in.”
She continues, “Come and work for someone who appreciates you! Our volunteers are well looked after. There are lunches, a cage of food if you need something for yourself, and lots of training. It gives you the confidence to push yourself out of your comfort zone, especially if you have not been working for a while.”
It’s Volunteers Week from 3-9 June and we couldn’t do what we do without our amazing team of volunteers. This week, we’re highlighting some of our volunteer roles to showcase the work they do:
“I hate seeing food waste, so that’s the number one priority, I think, for the whole organisation”
Nick
Volunteer van driver for FareShare Greater Manchester
Nick has been volunteering as a driver for FareShare Greater Manchester for almost 3 years. After retiring, he felt the need to contribute and decided to dedicate one day a week to volunteering. “I come here most Mondays, and occasionally, when they’re desperate, I’ll come in if I’ve not got anything else on – like a round of golf – then I’ll do another day, but mostly, I do Mondays.”
Every day is different when you’re driving a van for FareShare, but the structure of the days are the same. Nick says his average day starts early, “I’m here normally by half past 7, but we usually finish around 3”. In the middle of the day, once the first round of deliveries is complete, “I get back here for an hour or so and load up the van a second time.”
The benefits of regularly volunteering for FareShare are many, says Nick volunteer van driver. “It’s good exercise, it’s not too strenuous, and the people are very nice.” He continues, “I hate seeing food waste, so that’s the number one priority, I think, for the whole organisation. Making sure that food goes to those who need it, it’s as simple as that.”
FareShare Greater Manchester is looking for more volunteer van drivers to help deliver the food to those who need it most. Our delivery drivers are vital to the work we do. Drivers make sure our food gets delivered to charity members across Greater Manchester. You must be over 21 to do this role, have a full, clean licence and recent, relevant, and regular van driving experience.
For anyone considering getting involved, Nick has this advice: “Give it a go! I started with a friend of mine and we drive the van together, so we have a bit of fun on a Monday, but even when I’m on my own, its very rewarding – it’s good fun. It gets me up in the morning and I enjoy the day, I enjoy the people”.
If reading our Nick Volunteer van driver story has got you thinking about volunteering, please get in touch!
It’s Volunteers Week from 3-9 June. We couldn’t do what we do without our amazing team of volunteers. This week, we’re highlighting some of our volunteer roles to showcase the work they do:
Karin, originally from Scotland, has spent much of her life in Manchester. She worked as a team manager at IBM for more than 18 years. After leaving IBM, she followed her passion for travelling the world to teach English. This new career path saw her volunteering in Africa, India, and Central America. She returned to Manchester in 2009.
Soon after her return, Karin started volunteering with FareShare Greater Manchester. “I love food and am environmentally aware and very conscious about not wasting food. So I Googled ‘food charities’ and FareShare Greater Manchester popped up,” she says.
Karin’s first role with us involved working in the warehouse. However, her career experience in finance and project management made her better suited to fundraising. During the 15 years Karin has been with us, she has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The best thing about volunteering for FareShare Greater Manchester
“It has to be the people you meet – they’re a great bunch with a great ethos. They’re funny and there’s a good diversity of people” says Karin.
Most of Karin’s time with us is spent applying for grants. Each grant application is different, with varying expectations and requirements. To simplify the process, Karin started using AI to help write the applications.
Highlights of her time volunteering
Karin finds it gratifying to see more people becoming aware of us now. She says, “Fundraising and applying to charitable trusts and foundations is a tough process. It’s very gratifying to see the number of people who set themselves a challenge individually to raise funds for us.” Many people have run marathons and undertaken various sporting challenges to raise funds for FareShare Greater Manchester.
Karin says she has had many conversations about volunteering over the years and has this advice; “find something that interests you, something that you have a connection with”.
Despite being retired, Karin keeps very busy volunteering for several charities around the Greater Manchester area. In addition to her work with us, Karin has volunteered in a school, a hospital shop, as a respite carer and as a volunteer gardener too.
If reading Karin’s story has got you thinking about volunteering, please get in touch!
It was Volunteers Week from 3-9th June. We couldn’t do what we do without our amazing team of volunteers. This week, we’re highlighting some of our volunteer roles to showcase the work they do:
“It’s really hectic, but it’s great! I love the camaraderie here!”
Claire
Warehouse Volunteer
Claire joined us in September 2020 as a warehouse volunteer. She says she heard about FareShare Greater Manchester at the right time; “I saw something in the papers about FareShare when I was just about to retire. I thought, ‘I need to do something with all this new free time’. This looked good and I thought that I should explore it.”
On an average day in the warehouse Claire helps prepare the food orders ready for the delivery drivers to do their rounds. There’s never a dull moment Claire tells us, “It’s hectic. I usually get in early and it’s really hectic but it’s great! I love the camaraderie in here!”
Our warehouse volunteers are at the heart of what we do. Our team is responsible for sorting, storing and recording the food we get delivered to our warehouse. They also assemble food orders for our community food members across Greater Manchester. Every day is different and our volunteers are part of a fun, welcoming team. There’s something for people of all abilities!
The work our volunteers contribute to support what FareShare Greater Manchester does is invaluable to us. There are more charities and community groups reaching out to us and asking for help every week. Claire says she knows how important her volunteering role is, “We are more than aware of food poverty these days and the need for food banks unfortunately. Somebody needs to be able to supply all those food banks and we do what we can to help”.
Since signing up as a warehouse volunteer with us, Claire’s been spreading the word and encouraging others to give it a go. “Quite a few friends have joined FareShare since I started, one in FareShare Plus and some on the floor here as well. It’s very rewarding. It’s hard work, but it’s very rewarding and I really enjoy it because we are all similarly minded. It’s good fun!”
If hearing Claire’s story has got you thinking about volunteering, please get in touch!
Over the course of 2020, we’ve been busy working on a WRAP-funded project with our neighbours at New Smithfield Market. In short, we’ve aimed to divert surplus fruit and veg from landfill and help our members. Ultimately, we endeavour to turn it into nutritious meals for people in the community.
One of the benefits of being based at New Smithfield Market in East Manchester, as a food distribution charity, is that we’re right in the heart of the North West’s largest wholesale fruit and vegetables market. Everything from aubergines to oranges passes through the market gates, but when it goes unsold it goes to waste. Collectively, traders dispose of nearly 4,000 tonnes of food wastage with unwanted fruit and veg being thrown each year in a landfill.
However, 5-10% of the surplus produce on the market is perfectly edible. Thanks to grant funding from WRAP and our brilliant volunteers, we’ve been running a fruit and veg diversion project to save as much of it as we can and prevent the food wastage. We are then able to redistribute it to our Community Food Members across Greater Manchester.
Fresh fruit and veg is vital for maintaining a balanced and healthy diet. However, it’s often the food category that individuals and families in poverty have the least access to. Thankfully, over the course of 2020 our diversion project has managed to redistribute 57 tonnes of fresh produce to frontline charities and food banks.
This has been all the more important during the pandemic. In particular, this era has seen the number of people depending on our food nearly double at peak times. During the first lockdown period, the project contributed significantly to the incredible 300 tonnes of fresh fruit and veg we sent out to people in need.
The project has allowed us to work with a wide range of fresh produce, and in particular less common fruit and vegetables that the FareShare network wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to purchase. We’re receiving a lot of enthusiastic feedback about the quality and volumes we’re now able to offer.
Our BME Network friends in particular are appreciative of a wider range of produce they can cook with, and it’s rewarding to know we’re offering versatility to people’s diets. We’re also building good relationships with people in the market, centred around reducing food waste.
Andrew Fowler,
Project Worker at FareShare GM
One of the key parts of the project is to help our network make best use of the produce we supply. In short, by providing storage and preserving advice and sharing tried-and-tested cooking in bulk recipes.
In June, for instance, we reached out to the community for recipes using watermelons after receiving a huge 47-pallet delivery of watermelons from the market. Our favourite suggestions were watermelon and feta salad and this delicious watermelon curry recipe.
As well as making a huge difference to people’s health, the project is also making a huge difference to the environment. Each kilo of produce we rescue from disposal saves around 4.5kgs in CO2 emissions, helping to contribute to the fight against climate change.
We’d like to send out a huge thanks to our hard-working volunteers and to the generous support from WRAP which has made this project a reality.
Keep an eye out on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages for calls for new recipe suggestions!