Northern Powergrid Supports Food Rescue Expansion

FareShare North East is delighted to announce that Northern Powergrid has joined the partnership between FareShare North East and Karbon Homes, helping turn an exciting vision into a reality.

Thanks to Karbon Homes’ initial pledge in January 2026 through their Social Value Fund, and now with the generous support from Northern Powergrid’s Social Impact Programme, FareShare North East is working with contractors to design and install a bespoke modular Clean Room.

Northern Powergrid is the electricity distribution network operator for the Northeast, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire, delivering power safely and reliably to 8 million customers across 3.9 million homes and businesses.

Beyond delivering vital network upgrades, the company is committed to investing in the people and places that help local communities thrive. From supporting local charities to helping create new spaces for communities to enjoy, its Social Impact Programme is guided by strengthening communities through the power it delivers and the positive legacy it leaves behind.

A Practical, Scalable Solution

The Clean Room is a fully modular, stand-alone food-safe environment that does not require building regulations. It can be dismantled, moved, and reassembled if required, giving FareShare North East the flexibility to respond to future growth and operational needs.

Many manufacturers and suppliers have surplus food in large-scale packaging, for example 10kg bags of pasta. While this pasta is perfectly good to eat, bulk products like this are often too large for community organisations and individuals to use.

The Clean Room will allow us to safely divide and repackage large catering packs of food into manageable quantities – making them more accessible to the charities and groups we support and unlocking hundreds of tonnes of nutritious surplus food that would otherwise go to waste.

The environmental and community impact of this project is substantial:

• 50 tonnes of surplus food redistributed in the first year
• Rising to 90 tonnes in year two
• And 130 tonnes in year three

In total, that’s the equivalent of 642,600 meals made possible, all from food that already exists and would otherwise risk going to waste.

By preventing this surplus from going to landfill or anaerobic digestion, the Clean Room will also save an estimated 548 tonnes of embedded CO₂ over three years, supporting the region’s net zero ambitions.

Thank you!

We would like to thank Northern Powergrid and Karbon Homes for sharing our vision and helping make this project possible.

Together, we’re creating a practical solution that reduces food waste, increases access to good food and strengthens communities across the North East. It shows what’s possible when organisations work together to achieve incredible localised social and environmental benefits.

We will be sharing more updates in the coming months as the Clean Room takes shape.