FareShare South West, a charity whose mission is to fight child food poverty whilst tackling food waste, is launching a pilot project in Bath and North East Somerset as the result of a £20,000 grant from St John’s Foundation.
The charity, whose remit for the project is to ‘dismantle child food poverty in Bath and North East Somerset’, will have a year to launch a scalable pilot model for food distribution, working with partner organisations across the area.
As an already established charity across many areas of the South West, this extra funding will see a greater focus on Bath and North East Somerset and more engagement with charities within the region. With its warehouse and headquarters in Bristol, FareShare South West has run a similar project in the city and has successfully built a community of around 180 charities and organisations who benefit from the redistribution of this surplus food.
Over the festive period alone, FareShare South West was responsible for providing 70,000 meals to those in need within the South West.
All operations will be run from FareShare’s Bristol warehouse, with food being delivered by refrigerated van to partner schools and other organisations across BANES. FareShare already delivers to various projects across Bath, including Bath Area Play Project, Julian Trust and Three Ways School.
FareShare South West CEO, Julian Mines, explained, “Expanding our reach further into Bath and North East Somerset is in direct response to the rise in child hunger across the region. We are delighted and grateful that St John’s Foundation has provided the funding needed to launch the first phase of this project. We’ll now be looking to identify schools, breakfast clubs, youth clubs, holiday projects and other charities or organisations who may benefit from our redistributed surplus food, with the aim of ensuring fewer children in the region go hungry as a result of food poverty.
“We also hope to establish a brand-new initiative in Bath with our ‘pantry model’ supermarket. We anticipate that this will run like a food bank, but with fresh produce available, whilst appearing much like a shop. We will be looking for a host organisation already established in the community from which to launch this particular element of the project. We can’t wait to get started.”
For more information about FareShare South West visit: faresharesouthwest.org.uk