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Fifty thousand meals destined for landfill distributed to the vulnerable and hungry

Perfectly good food diverted from landfill feeds tens of thousands of vulnerable, hungry people on the island of Ireland.
~ Wednesday, 1 February 2012

The National food charity FareShare, which opened its Belfast depot off Sandy Row last year, is working to relieve food poverty on the island of Ireland. The operation receives surplus food from retailers and manufacturers throughout Ireland and distributes it to local charities, delivering tens of thousands of meals to vulnerable, hungry people.

Environment Minister Alex Attwood, whose Department helped to fund the scheme, said: "The FareShare project is providing a vital service to communities in our area. If it wasn't for this project a lot of discarded food might be wasted. Through engaging local volunteers FareShare manage to re-distribute this food to local communities that in this current economic climate need it most.

“As well as helping to reduce over 23.5 tonnes of food from landfill, this project is making a real difference to charities across Northern Ireland such as Homestart Antrim, Lighthouse Hostel and Friendship House. I would like to commend FairShare and their volunteers for their dedication to this worthy cause. It is a measure of our times that there is a demand for projects like this. I will be discussing with the scheme how it might develop and how the NI Government may help.”

Alison Upton, Business Development Officer for Fareshare Ireland added: “It is anticipated that the new Belfast depot will supply food to 40 charities by the end of the first year. The food redistributed has already contributed towards over 50000 meals for marginalised people. We are delighted with the progress we have made, and look forward to continuing to provide this service which we hope will grow from strength to strength."

The Belfast depot has been opened with support from the Department for the Environment NI, Food Standards Agency NI and SafeFood (FSPB) and is being supported by substantial contributions from Montgomery Refrigeration, RedSky group and the local media company Adbugs.

Notes to editors:

  1. FareShare is the national charity working to relieve food poverty by redistributing quality surplus food from the food industry to a network of over 600 community organisations that support homeless and other vulnerable people.
  2. The charity also provides training and education around the essential life skills of safe food preparation and nutrition, and warehouse employability training through FareShare’s Eat Well Live Well programme. This includes Fork Lift Truck Training.
  3. Last year, the food redistributed by the charity contributed towards 6.7 million meals for vulnerable people. The charity runs 16 operations across the country and every day 29,000 people benefit from the FareShare service.
  4. FareShare opened its first depot in Northern Ireland at the beginning of 2011 and began re-distributing food in March. The Belfast depot, the first operation opened by ‘FareShare Island of Ireland,’ receives surplus food from retailers and manufacturers throughout Ireland and then distributes it to local charities feeding hungry and vulnerable people. Fairshare has so far delivered 23.5 tonnes of food or 55,692 average meals.
  5. For media enquiries contact DOE Press Office on 028 90256058. Out of office hours please contact the Duty Press Officer via pager number 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.
  6. Food companies working with FareShare include Nestlé UK, Sainsbury’s, Gerber Juice and Muller.
  7. For more information on FareShare, please call Maria Olesen on Tel: 020 7394 2467 or email: maria.olesen@fareshare.org.uk, alternatively you can visit the FareShare website FareShare website.
  8. For more information on the development of the network throughout Ireland contact Alison Upton – alison.upton@fareshare-ioi.eu or telephone +44 (0) 2890 246440
  9. FareShare IOI, Andras House, 60 Great Victoria Street Belfast BT2 7BB.
  10. FareShare Island of Ireland is operated under licence by Council for the Homeless NI.