From everyone here at FareShare North East, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

As Christmas is quickly approaching, we would like to take some time to recognise the amazing work of our volunteers, supporters and staff over 2021. Here are some of our 2021 highlights:

John, Paul & Avery’s Charity Skydive

This year, John Bower, a volunteer here in the warehouse, wanted to do a skydive for his 70th birthday and Paul Bandeira (our Warehouse Manager) said he’d do it too and raise funds for FareShare North East. Another volunteer, Janice Hulmes, signed up but was sadly unable to continue to do the jump due to medical reasons and so last minute, Avery Treynor from Second Bite (see this issue’s member focus to learn more about their work) took up the challenge. John, Paul, and Avery jumped from 15,000 feet on the 13th of June – plenty of people went to watch and support them, and they raised an amazing £2742! Thank you all for being so brave, and for doing something so exciting to raise money for us.

Olivia’s 3 Peak Challenge

Olivia, aged 10 at the time, was inspired to raise money for us during the lockdown. She set herself the challenge to climb her stairs every day in March, enough times to climb the same distance as getting to the top of Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike, and Snowdon. Olivia climbed around 50 flights of stairs every day and reached her target one day early! She raised over £880 for FareShare North East to go towards the cost of a new food delivery van – thank you Olivia!

Land’s End to John o’Groats

In August of this year, a group of cyclists rode 1,000 miles along the length of the country to raise money for our new van. David Grainger and Mike Dibb-Fuller (both volunteers at FareShare North East) were joined by Steve Barlow, John Hanley, Michael Hanley and Oli Hanley to cycle for 13 days, and reached their goal on the 14th of August. Donations kept coming in even after they’d finished and overall they raised an amazing £9,267!

Light Up Wylam

In 2020, Sarah Grainger organised a village-wide event in Wylam to bring festive cheer to her local community. Funds were raised through donations and by selling programmes – in total £2,527 was raised to go towards our work! We were honoured to be supported by such a fun event and are really excited for its return this year! Find out more about how you can get involved and help us this Christmas. On Sunday 12th December 2021, the second annual Light Up Wylam commenced, raising even more money for FareShare North East this Christmas. 

With everyone’s help we were able to purchase a new refrigerated van in November! Thank you to our amazing volunteers who have dedicated valuable time to helping those most in need in the North East. We wish everyone a peaceful Christmas and we are looking forward to seeing you all in the New Year!

Please find our Christmas opening hours below. If you have any questions, please contact us.

We caught up with Nourish Food School to talk about their partnership with JET. Check out their surplus Pulled Turkey Burger – great for leftover turkey after Christmas!

Nourish Food School is a brand new social enterprise on a mission to positively shape the way people see, eat and experience food every day. With a cookery school and a food education company, they work in Newcastle upon Tyne and the surrounding areas. Their aim is to give people the skills, knowledge and confidence to feel great about having transformed simple ingredients into delicious, nutritious meals.

In September 2021, Nourish partnered up with charities JET and FareShare North East to bring food skills to local people and places, with a key focus on ‘saving the surplus’. From The Wicker Chair cafe at the FareShare North East site, Joanna and Dorothy have been running weekly cookery demonstrations, free recipe card giveaways and training workshops for catering trainees. More opportunities for hands-on food skills and cookery classes are planned for the very near future. Keep an eye out for more news soon!

“We want to showcase those ingredients that are often abundant at the FareShare warehouse on any given week. If we can come up with recipes and ideas that inspire FareShare member organisations to use food in different ways, then surely this is going to help save that surplus from becoming food waste and take the boredom out of making soups, which is often our go-to solution. Our live cookery demonstrations have been taking place every week in The Wicker Chair cafe, but are also live-streamed on social media for anyone wanting to watch from afar. We’re super excited to announce that we’ll be running some of our cookery classes on-site soon too － meaning absolutely anyone can get hands-on with cooking from scratch and understanding how to use some of those less common ingredients that might baffle them when the FareShare delivery drivers drop them off.” (Joanna Lacey, Managing Director, Nourish Food School) 

Festive Leftover ‘Pulled Turkey’ Sandwich Filling

Don’t waste leftover turkey this year! Transform this traditional meat into tasty sandwiches, perfect for Boxing Day. 

Filling ingredients:

• 1 red onion, sliced
• 200g leftover turkey
• 1 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 5 tbsp ketchup
• 20g brown sugar
• 1 tbsp mustard (or mustard powder)
• 1 tbsp wine or rice vinegar

For the slaw, use any leftover bits of veg you have in the fridge, such as:

• 2 carrots, grated
• ½ cabbage, shredded
• 1 red onion (or 4 spring onions), finely slice
• 100g nuts (any kind)
• A bunch of fresh herbs (like parsley)
• 1 tbsp honey (or maple syrup)
• 2 tsp mustard
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• Juice of 1 orange

Directions: 

To make the festive slaw:

1. Prepare all your salad vegetables by either grating or thinly slicing.
2. Finely chop any fresh herbs and nuts.
3. Whisk together the honey, mustard, olive oil and orange juice in a bowl.
4. Add the veg, herbs and nuts, then season with salt and black pepper.
5. Leave for an hour or more in the fridge so the vegetables soften.

To make the filling:

1. Shred or cut your leftover turkey into small pieces.
2. Whisk the chilli powder, cumin, ketchup, sugar, mustard and vinegar together in a bowl.
3. Add the turkey and sliced onion to the sauce and mix to coat all over.
4. Roast in the oven for 40 minutes until the meat is hot.
5. You should end up with a sticky shredded dish of turkey, perfect for filling a large bread roll… enjoy!

Click here to discover more surplus food recipes.

In September we were joined by six students who have been getting some hands-on work experience while studying on the Supported Internship placement course at Newcastle College.

Chloe, Sharmin and Subhan

Working in the office are Chloe, Sharmin and Subhan, who help us by sending out emails to the groups we deliver to, logging volunteer hours, and filing. Chloe is here two days a week doing admin tasks. Although the work of downloading and emailing dispatch notes was a surprise for Chloe at first as it was all new, she is now confident about her work and manages all of her tasks to a brilliant standard.

Sharmin and Subhan work with us one day a week along with their support workers Marion and Michael. They are a huge help in the office － they enter data on the hours worked by our volunteers and help us by researching food waste and environmental issues. Alongside FareShare, they also help at Bill Quay Farm, learning about customer service, welcoming visitors and handling money. Sharmin even finds time to get involved with social media for an internet radio station and volunteering at the RNIB.

Subhan really enjoys research! He helped compile a list of ways to reduce food waste (find below) and has been making a collection of recipes that use a range of unusual ingredients.

From top left to bottom right: Subhan and Michael, Chloe, Harry, Sharmin & Marion

Ethan, Harry and Kian

In the warehouse side of FareShare, Ethan, Harry and Kian have been learning new skills: from helping to receive and store stock to picking and packing food deliveries. For Harry, the warehouse seemed massive and intimidating at first, but it only took a matter of days to get used to it all, and he found the tasks easy to pick up. Harry has a great attitude, with nothing being difficult for him, and his work is like second nature now.

As well as learning about working with stock, manual handling and food hygiene, he is always willing to get stuck in and has learnt lots of useful skills to take with him for his future. The best feeling for Harry has been the sense of pride in his job, and he has a whole new appreciation for going home to a hot meal and having enough to eat.

It’s been amazing having the students here and we are looking forward to them helping out in the office and the warehouse until the end of the school year!

How to Reduce Food Waste:

• Freeze what you won’t use in time. Most foods can be frozen, cheese, and even eggs (once they have been cracked and beaten)
• Keep bagged salad and spinach leaves freshers by putting a piece of kitchen towel in the bag – this will stop it going slimy
• If your council offers a food waste collection service – use it!
• Check your fridge is at the correct temperature: between 3 and 5 degrees
• Write a meal plan for the week and only buy what you need
• Keep your fruit and veg in the fridge – it will last longer (apart from potatoes, onions, bananas and pineapple)
• Know the difference between ‘use-by’ and ‘best-before’ dates. Use-by is about safety and food is not safe to eat after this date. ‘Best before’ is about quality, foods are still safe to eat after this date.

Find out more about how we tackle food waste here. 

We are continuing our work, in partnership with Gateshead College, to support people in reaching their full potential.

Three-week Blended Programme

Together, we are delivering a three-week blended programme of classroom and work experience-based learning to help people develop the skills, knowledge, and work experience they need to get jobs in the warehouse and logistics sector. There are many local and national companies that recruit for roles in warehousing, supply chain, and logistics – this programme gives people relevant qualifications and experience to strengthen their confidence and to increase their opportunities for paid work. 

The last six months have been a difficult time for lots of people, with the uncertainty of lockdown restrictions and rules on social distancing being revised. Despite these difficulties, FareShare North East and Gateshead College have continued to deliver the employment training programme.

Programme Successes

During this time, we delivered another two courses, with 12 people successfully completing the programme. Four have only just finished and are now being supported by Jason Meek, the Employment Programme Manager, to find paid employment opportunities. Out of the eight people from the previous intake, six have found paid work and two are being supported by other services.

To give an idea of the successes, some of the former programme participants are now employed with various companies and organisations such as:

• Palatine Beds
• NHS
• Amazon
• Iceland
• Hollands Food
• FareShare North East

During this time, we’ve also had two young people working at FareShare North East as part of the KickStart Scheme – Matthew and Jack. They have both attended the training and as a result of how successful this scheme has been, we are now recruiting a further five people.

2022 Employment & Training Programmes

We are now offering two new programmes:

Programme 1: gain qualifications and experience, duration of 3 weeks plus 1 day induction and 1 day employment skills training includes continued employment support (each week consists of 3 days tutorials and 2 days warehouse training). Click here for application and start dates.

Programme 2: gain experience, 10 days in total, including 1 day induction/volunteer enrolment, 9 days volunteering (this can be completed over a longer period) and includes employment support. Click here for application and start dates.

Click here to find out more about the Employment & Training programmes. 

We can’t tackle climate change without fixing food waste first!

Elle, our Impact and Evaluation Co-ordinator, went to COP26 in Glasgow this month. She came across this piece of artwork titled ‘The Food Waste Effect’ by Itamar Gilboa and it got her thinking about the detrimental impacts of food waste on our planet. This blog post delves into the problem of food waste and what FareShare North East is doing to prevent it.

Making a Difference Together

Did you know that two million tonnes of fresh, unsold food is wasted in the UK every single year? The average UK family generates a 117kg pile of food waste every six months and if we ranked food waste next to nation states, it would come in as the third largest emitter of greenhouse gasses…accounting for 10% of the world total. An estimated 2 million tonnes of food wasted on UK farms and in factories every year is still perfectly good to eat when it is disposed of. We don’t need to wait for world leaders to take action against food waste, we can make a difference together. 

Redistributing Surplus Food is Important

Redistributing surplus food is the most environmentally, socially, and economically friendly thing we can do. According to FareShare UK, every tonne of food we redistribute, we prevent the waste of 1.6 tonnes of embedded CO2 emissions and save 1.5 million litres of embedded water from being wasted. By redistributing good to eat surplus food to charities and community groups it allows us to avoid both needless waste and needless hunger. We can help edible food out of landfills and help reduce the pressure to grow more food whilst supporting people struggling with food poverty. That’s a win-win for people and the environment!

The work of FareShare North East is helping to reduce the amount of food that is unnecessarily going to landfill. But what is the problem with food going to landfill? Find out more about we are turning an environmental problem into a social solution.

The Problem With Landfill

• The production, packaging and transport of all food creates greenhouse gases, which could be avoided if the food is just wasted.
• Food that ends up in a landfill generates methane gas.
• Methane is up to 86 times as damaging as CO2.
• An increased amount of methane and CO2 in the atmosphere contributes to climate change.
• Climate change destabilises the Earth’s temperature equilibrium and has far-reaching effects on the environment and human beings.

Climate Change Impacts Human Health

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity. The UN says that SDG 13 (Climate Action) and SDG 3 (Health and Wellbeing) are closely interlinked, as one action on one results in the other.

The Climate Reality Project says that climate change impacts human health in countless ways, four of which are:

Extreme Weather: including hurricanes and floods. Not only can this have an immediate fatal consequences, they can lead to major injuries and the spread of waterborne illnesses such as dermatitis; conjunctivitis; and ear, nose and throat infections.

Vector-Borne Diseases: which are illnesses spread by insects or arachnids like mosquitoes, fleas, mites and ticks.

Air Quality: which can cause serious respiratory problems.

Rising Temperatures: the world could experience more heatwaves, and even more intense ones. As well as the risk of severe drought, extreme heat can overpower the human body and cause dehydration. The elderly, children and the poor are most at risk from the impact of heatwaves.

How Much Food Do We Through Away?

The UK throws away around 10 million tonnes of food every year, of which 6 million tonnes are avoidable. According to WRAP (Waste & Resource Action Programme), the UK’s avoidable food waste in 2018 gave rise to an equivalent of over 20 million tonnes of CO2 – an amount of Greenhouse Gases with a similar warming potential to CO2.

WRAP has calculated that on average 4 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents are avoided for every tonne of food waste prevented.

To accelerate sustainable development and achieve the SDGs by 2030 – more needs to be done…and that’s where FareShare North East come in.

What Does FareShare North East Do?

In 2020, FareShare North East redistributed over 1,600 tonnes of food. We continue to redistribute on average 140 tonnes a month. This amount of food is helping to fight hunger as it equates to enough food for over 333,000 meals a month. According to WRAP, this food saves approximately 560 tonnes of greenhouse gases every month. The food that we are unable to redistribute to our members is diverted to our local BioPlant or fed to the animals at a local farm.

Join us to make a difference; whether as a community group, a volunteer, a sponsor or a donor, and let us have an even greater social and environmental impact as we work together to fight hunger and tackle food waste.

Find out more about how you get involved here.