From September 2020 to March 2022, FareShare North East worked with partners, Gateshead College and Your Homes Newcastle to deliver a Community Led Local Development funded employment programme.

The impact

The programme had 55 referrals:

• 42 completed the programme
• 33 went on to gain employment or continued to gain more experience by volunteering on a regular basis
• 9 became engaged with other employment services and organisations

What did the participants say?

We had lots of great feedback from the participants of the programme…from building confidence, improving wellbeing and meeting new people, to gaining new skills and qualifications required for the workplace.

Take a look of what some of our participants have to say:

“I liked learning different things and it opened my eyes to new things. The tutors were nice and really helpful and I learnt different things. I knew what to expect as I volunteered there already and I like the fact I’m helping other people and I’m more confident because I have a purpose now as I’ve gained employment. I’m good at communicating with people but I feel I have met and connected with more people. I would tell others to go on it, to build your confidence, talk to new people and I’d really recommend it.” (PH) 

“I liked the practical training in the warehouse, I think that was really helpful and gave me an insight on what warehouse jobs would entail. The teachers were very friendly and approachable and the staff were very supportive and I could always ask someone for help. I gained new skills and qualifications, it increased my confidence and gave me an insight into warehouse and logistics work and it improved my chances of gaining employment and since attending the program I have got a job as a Lab Support Worker for the NHS. I think it is a great idea and will really help people in gaining new skills and qualifications.” (MM)

Find out more

From September 2021 to June 2022 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

Welcoming the Placement Students

The students worked in the office, helping to sending out emails to groups we deliver to, logging volunteer hours and filing. Some students also worked in the warehouse, learning about working with stock, manual handling and food hygiene, as well as pick food deliveries to go out to our members.

The Impact of the Placement

We spoke with Lynn, the SEND Preparing for Work Coordinator within the School of Learning Development at Newcastle College about the impact of the placements:

“During the placement, the students were able to build on their confidence and employability skills. This was done by working as part of the team and using their initiative when required. They were also also to build on the social skills that some students lacked at the start of the placement, however, during the course this was becoming evident that they were able to talk to new people and work alongside them.

The college are so grateful for the opportunity that FareShare gave to the students in hosting the placements. The work the students carried out allowed them to build on the transferrable skills that will enable them to apply for jobs in a range of areas. Students have become more confident in different environments and with different situations they may face. They have also been able to add this to their CV, making them more employable when applying for jobs.”

What did the placement students say?

“It was an excellent working experience, the staff were polite and would guide you if you got confused on what to do, so it helped me with confidence and gave me better work experience”

“Working at FareShare has changed my life as not only did I get to work in a warehouse environment for the first time, but I also got to meet some amazing people who I am still friends with to this day. FareShare opened my eyes on food insecurity and just how big of an issue it is across the UK, because of this I am extremely grateful that I can go home and have a warm meal when others might not get to do that. I would love to thank FareShare for giving me this amazing time I had working for them and changing the way I see food and charity”

We are so thankful the placement students joined us and we wish them all the best for the future!

Find out more about what we do here at FareShare North East and how you can get involved. 

We have helped over 300 children in the North East receive food support this summer thanks to Foresters Financial and Tesco 

Feed a Child for a Day

Members from Foresters received a grant of £2000 to help ‘Feed a Child for a Day‘ over the summer holidays and around 20 volunteers came together to pack food parcels on Sunday 17th July. These parcels were made up of breakfast, lunch and dinner items, as well as snacks and drinks for children.

“We are incredibly grateful to the Foresters volunteers and Tesco for this initiative. Unfortunately demand for food support is rising considerably and we are always looking for new ways to help our local community by distributing surplus and donated food to where it is needed the most.”

(Jake Hanmore, FareShare North East CEO) 

The event took place at Tesco Kingston Park Newcastle with Tesco kindly donating their community room and resources. The food will be distributed to our members across the region for children who might otherwise struggle to eat without school meals over the summer holidays, as part of our holiday hunger project.

“We run events like this all year round to support local charities whether that’s with food, clothing, school supplies or Christmas toys. It is a very sad situation that so many families struggle with basic needs such as food but it is a pleasure to be able to do our part to help FareShare North East and the great work that they do.”

(Rachael Metcalfe – Foresters)

Partner with Us

FareShare North East are always looking for new partners whether that’s local food producers, suppliers or distributors to ensure no food goes to waste and can be distributed effectively to benefit both the environment and the local community.

For further information, please contact Lynsey Thompson ([email protected]) 

In March 2022 we welcomed Mai, a Newcastle University Master’s student studying International Development and Education, who volunteered with us for four weeks.

This week we take a look at Mai’s second week of volunteering at FareShare North East. Check out her first diary entry here. 

Monday 28th March 2022

Today, I worked as a warehouse assistant. I felt more confident than last week, so I worked by myself this time. I found out that it is very important to make the trolleys well balanced because some kinds of foods, like the tinned vegetables, were very heavy. It is really important to make sure that everything is safe and balanced when packing the food.

The picking list today was very long, 3 pages of A4 sheets! It was challenging for me because I had to pick up a lot of food from different sections of the warehouse, with the total weight at 180kg! I asked for help when I couldn’t find some foods, but the other volunteers were more than happy to help. I also had to receive some help when lifting heavy bags of vegetables like carrots and potatoes. 

Thursday 31st March 2022

I worked as a warehouse assistant in a pair today. Each day has different food so sometimes I took some time finding the food that was on the picking list. We divided the picking between us to gather everything quickly and I asked the helpful staff where the location of the food was if I was not able to find it.

Friday 1st April 2022

Today I took a manual handling training session to learn how to avoid injury. The trainer explained how spines work and how much load lower back would take, this was a lot of new knowledge for me. I found out what when people hold a 20kg box, their lower backs takes 60kg load, and when they lift it up the load is 200kg. These numbers were much larger than my original expectations. I also found that it is important to check the weight before the lifting as it can cause injuries to backs or shoulders. I will ensure that I ask other staff members to support me the next time if anything is too heavy. Now I have the knowledge to protect myself, I will work with these safety instructions. 

Over the next few weeks we will be publishing the rest of Mai’s volunteering journey with FareShare North East – so stay tuned!

Volunteer with Us

FareShare North East are working with Food and Drink North East on the ‘Welly to Belly Project’, with the support of Newcastle City Council

What is the Welly to Belly Project?

The Welly to Belly Project provides a hands-on opportunity for children from primary schools to grow fruit and vegetables from seed to stall, as well as being a positive platform to promote food education to schools and communities as a way to support children to live happy and healthy lives.

On the 14th July, primary school children will be selling fruit and vegetables that they have grown in their school gardens at Grainger Market. This will be an amazing day of celebrations for the children after six months of hard work, learning to grow their own fruit and vegetables at school. 

Participating schools include:

• Kenton Bar Primary School
• Tyneview Primary School
• West Walker Primary School
• Walkergate Community School

A local horticulturist has been teaching the children the art of growing vegetables form seed, and market traders have shared their secrets on how to create a winning market stall!

This year will be the second sale in Newcastle. After two years of pandemic disruption the children are excited to get back to what they love and become market traders for the day.

All the proceeds gained from selling the children’s fruit and vegetables will go towards supporting the work of FareShare North East, helping us get food to people who need it most in the region.

We are so excited to be involved and we want to thank everyone for their support!

In March 2022 we welcomed Mai, a Newcastle University Master’s student studying International Development and Education, who volunteered with us for four weeks.

Mai wrote a diary of her time volunteering, speaking all about what she did and her experiences. Check out the entry for the first week in Mai’s Student Volunteer Diary.

Monday 21st March 2022

I attended my volunteering induction at FareShare North East. I saw a huge amount of food, and at first, I thought it was be great because a lot of people could receive food from FareShare North East, but at the same time, I was overwhelmed with the fact that this would be wasted if charities like FareShare do not exist.

During the induction, I heard several reasons as to why food comes to FareShare North East, like delivery delays to supermarkets, the impact of seasonal events, and mislabeling! I hearing that around 150 people volunteer for FareShare North East, all wanting to tackle food insecurity and food insecurity! I am really excited to start volunteering!

Thursday 24th March 2022

Today was my first proper day of volunteering for FareShare North East. Before I started, I wore a bib, gloves and safety shoes. A staff member who worked with me explained what I needed to do before I started volunteering. This is what we did:

• There were list which were shown what we needed to pick for each community group, so we collected the food from several sections of the warehouse. The warehouse is so large, but each section is numbered and the lists show where the food is located – so it’s not too complicated!
• We went into the chiller to pick refrigerated food, like dairy and vegetables.
• We wrote the van numbers and locations on a piece of cardboard and put it on the top of the food box and kept it in the chiller – ready for delivery the next day!

I was impressed at how organised the warehouse was and how friendly the volunteers were. I was able to enjoy the tasks with other volunteers’ support from the beginning.

Friday 25th March 2022

Today was my second day volunteering for FareShare North East. I worked in a pair and did the same tasks as I did yesterday, but this time – it went much smoother! I found lots of new food in the warehouse today, more than yesterday! The lists showed the locations of the new food which was really useful to find them quickly. The changes in the food types made me feel that most of them were surpluses at supermarkets, which would otherwise be thrown away.

Over the next few weeks we will be publishing the rest of Mai’s volunteering journey with FareShare North East – so stay tuned!

Volunteer with Us