About us

Our Story

FareShare Greater Manchester is run by EMERGE 3Rs, a registered charity.

Launched in 2009, EMERGE 3Rs was created to improve the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of local people, first and foremost in Greater Manchester. We do this by promoting the understanding and practice of the real ‘3Rs’ of sustainable resource and waste management – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Together with our sister social enterprise, EMERGE Recycling, we want to create a world in which the real 3Rs are second nature, people cherish and innately value resources, nobody goes hungry and food is used for good rather than being wasted.

Our back story

Back in January 1996, East Manchester Environment and Resources Group Emerge (EMERGE) began as a voluntary organisation and started multi-material kerbside collections from 50 homes in December, building the service up as more homes joined each week.

Three years later, EMERGE was in a position to recruit our first fully paid member of staff, pioneered the first high-rise flats recycling service in Manchester and piloted a Pedestrian Controlled Vehicle (PCV) multi-material collection service for 5,000 households. We also developed an Open College Network (OCN) qualification in Community Recycling, the first qualification of its kind in the 3Rs and recycling.

By the end of the nineties, EMERGE was collecting recyclables from 62,000 homes across Manchester and Old Trafford, from the kerbside.

The start of FareShare Greater Manchester

In 2008, EMERGE was approached by FareShare UK and invited to run the ‘regional centre’ in partnership with the national charity, redistributing surplus in-date food to community groups, schools and voluntary sector bodies who use food to help alleviate poverty. By 2018 we were redistributing nearly 1,500 tonnes of food to 220 ‘Community Food Members’ across Greater Manchester.

EMERGE Recycling changed its name to EMERGE 3Rs and became a registered charity in 2009 in order to support charitable activities like FareShare Greater Manchester.

FareShare Plus

During the Covid pandemic, the amount of surplus food being received by FareShare Greater Manchester increased to such an extent that an additional way of redistributing food to those who need it most had to be found. FareShare Plus was born offering a kind of ‘community cash and carry’ to our Community Food Members. Each week, 90 charities and community groups come to FareShare Plus to access this ‘surplus-surplus with a smile’.

The FareShare Plus model has allowed us to build closer relationships with the charities that we work with, as they visit us face-to-face frequently (e.g. weekly or fortnightly). It has also helped us to further understand the needs of the charities, and how we can work together to address these needs.

Marcus Rashford

During Covid, EMERGE refurbished a building on New Smithfield Market in order to grow our services. We were delighted to receive a huge boost for our FareShare Greater Manchester activities by the End Child Food Poverty Ambassador and Manchester United footballer, Marcus Rashford, when he and his Mum, Melanie Maynard, visited us and he contributed to our new HQ.

By way of recognising Marcus and Melanie for their help, our building was named ‘Maynard House’, as well as to honour the dedicated work that parents do to support their children.

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The Royal Visit

In December 2020, Their Royal Highnesses, the now Prince & Princess of Wales came to our Openshaw Warehouse to witness first-hand the work we do at FareShare Greater Manchester.

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