Salford company AJ Bell and the Sharks Community Trust, the charitable arm of Sale Sharks rugby club, have joined forces to distribute food hampers to local families with school-age children ahead of the Easter holidays, some of which will be provided by FareShare GM.
The ‘AJ Bell Easter Eats’ initiative will give families a helping hand over the Easter period. Moreover, food hampers contain a mixture of fresh, long-life produce, plus a holiday activity pack from the mental health charity Place2Be. They will also distribute Easter eggs via local schools as part of the project.
Easter Eats is the latest initiative by AJ Bell’s ‘Wage War on COVID’ fund. This fund is in place to support people facing direct impact as a result of the crisis. Wage War on COVID raises over £380,000 through donations from AJ Bell staff, customers, financial advisers and the general public.
The fund initially donated £30,000 to local food charities at the outset of the pandemic. That includes a £15,000 grant to FareShare GM.
Families with school age children have been amongst the hardest hit by the COVID pandemic. They have had to get to grips with home schooling whilst many of them have seen their incomes reduce or disappear completely. The AJ Bell Easter Eats initiative is designed to give these families a helping hand in the run up to the Easter holidays, after which they can hopefully look forward to further easing of lockdown restrictions and life returning to some level of normality.
Andy Bell
Chief Executive of AJ Bell
AJ Bell also donated over 600 digital tablets to care homes and hospitals around the UK. All in order to help residents stay in touch with loved ones during lockdown. Not to mention a further 140 to OnSide Youth Zones to:
Meanwhile, Sale Sharks – who play at the AJ Bell Stadium in Salford – are also hard at work, especially during the pandemic to support vulnerable people in Manchester.
In December, the club launched a campaign to support homeless charity CentrePoint. Centre Point came to be by a chance meeting between winger Marland Yarde and a young homeless man. Marland himself also:
The club, and the Trust, are committed to supporting the communities that we live and work in, and this project with AJ Bell is a perfect way to do that, at a time when many families need extra help. It has been such a challenging time for so many people and this year, more than ever, it’s so important that we do our bit to help.
Alison Warwood
Executive Director of the Sharks Community Trust
AJ Bell and the Sharks Community Trust are now working with local schools in and around Salford to identify families that could benefit from the Easter Eats initiative.
Demand for food has never been higher in the communities we serve and, thanks to the support of partners such as AJ Bell and Sharks Community Trust, we have doubled the amount of food we distribute each week in response to the crisis. Unfortunately the reality is that the hard work is far from over – 90% of the charities we serve say demand will either remain the same as crisis levels or increase – so we welcome AJ Bell’s continued efforts to help FareShare and other charities get good food onto the people who need it most.
Miranda Kaunang
Head of Development at FareShare GM
In 2020, we’ve provided 5.5 million meal portions to tens of thousands of people across Greater Manchester. This wouldn’t have been possible without the inspiring work of Marcus Rashford and his mum, Melanie.
Marcus has been instrumental this year in helping the whole FareShare Network to raise millions. All in order to provide meals for children and families who might not otherwise eat during the COVID-19 crisis.
In October, he brought his mum Melanie Rashford to visit our new warehouse, which will be named Maynard House in recognition of her and other parents like her who work tirelessly to provide for their children in difficult circumstances.
Marcus’ and Melanie’s inspiring story has been documented in the BBC’s new documentary, Marcus Rashford: Feeding Britain’s Children.
Reliance on FareShare GM food has reached unprecedented levels during the pandemic. Between 50,000 and 60,000 people and some 230 frontline charities currently depend on FareShare GM each week.
We’re grateful to Marcus and his national campaign to raise awareness of child food poverty. We’ve delivered more than 2,300 tonnes to people in need across Greater Manchester since the outbreak of COVID-19 in March.
However, our work is far from over. Even before the pandemic began, there were already 620,000 people struggling in Greater Manchester and extreme poverty was rapidly growing in the UK. More than a million households and half a million children experienced destitution at some point in 2019. The North West in particular is struggling.
Maynard House will significantly improve our capacity, allowing us to provide over 7 million meals a year to those in need. But even though the building has a new name and a plaque waiting to go on the wall, there’s more to do. Building work is ongoing, with funding from our capital appeal.
This year has been like no other, with more families stretched to the brink than ever before. It’s thanks to people like Marcus Rashford, his family, and all our fantastic supporters, volunteers and frontline charities that we’ve been able to provide so many meals for people in need. But the need isn’t going to go away in 2021 – if anything it will get greater. That’s why our new building is so important, and even though FareShare’s got Marcus Rashford on the team, we still need everyone’s support to get the ball over the line.
Miranda Kaunang
Head of Development at FareShare GM
We’ve teamed up with Manchester United Foundation and Manchester United FC. These efforts will provide 33 tonnes of food for their Santa’s Red Helpers Christmas appeal.
In the spirit of the holiday season, we are thrilled to announce our partnership with Manchester United Foundation and Manchester United FC. We are partnering to support the Santa’s Red Helpers Christmas appeal. With our combined efforts, we aim to provide 33 tonnes of food to families in need in the Greater Manchester community.
The Santa’s Red Helpers campaign encourages Manchester United fans to contribute food parcels and Christmas presents, as families may otherwise go without this Christmas. In an incredible show of support, Manchester United players have generously donated £250,000 to the cause.
Through our partnership with FareShare GM, the food donations will be transformed into 80000 Christmas meals by the club chefs. These meals will be delivered to children and families from partner schools of the Manchester United Foundation, food banks and other charities across the region, just in time for Christmas.
Following the success of our previous collaboration with Manchester United Foundation, where we provided 5,000 free school meals during the October half-term break, we are excited to continue our partnership to make an even greater impact in the community.
Manchester United ambassador Denis Irwin recently visited FareShare GM in early December. There, he learned more about our organisation and the impact that these donations will have on the community. During his visit, Denis toured the depot, met with operational staff and delivery drivers. This included those on their way to deliver food to Old Trafford for the Santa’s Red Helpers appeal.
It’s an inspirational and incredible operation, one that is managed so well by FareShare GM – full credit to them. The amount of families and children in need, people who need the most basic things, like food – it’s an eye opener. Manchester United is a huge football club. But we are committed to working in the community and the Foundation does a tremendous job. It’s a great effort on behalf of Manchester United and FareShare GM that we’ve partnered up so we can deliver these 80,000 parcels to partner schools and charities around Christmas. It can be a tough time for many people and unfortunately it’s only going to get tougher for some.
Denis Irwin
Manchester United ambassador
Denis’s visit came during our busiest week of the year. At this time, we prepared to provide 70 tonnes of food. It was to be distributed to over 250 frontline charities and community groups across Greater Manchester.
It’s really important that we’re working with the Foundation because of the relationships they have with local schools. When the meals reach the families and the boxes are opened with all the extra goodies those families and those kids will feel like somebody out there really cares about them and wants them to have a great Christmas despite everything that has happened this year.
Miranda Kaunang
Head of Development at FareShare GM
We encourage everyone to visit: The MU Foundation to learn more about the campaign. You can also learn how to generally help make a difference to those in need at Christmas. One way was becoming one of Santa’s Red Helpers. Together, we can create a brighter and more hopeful future for those who need it most.
Their Royal Highnesses, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, visited us on 7 December. Our royal visitors paid tribute to the whole FareShare network and all of the volunteers and organisations supporting us during the pandemic.
The visit to our depot was part of a three-day trip their Royal Highnesses took. In essence, they would meet organisations across the UK supporting those most in need during the COVID-19 crisis.
The Duke and Duchess were shown around our new warehouse, Melanie Maynard House. They had a chance to meet some of our amazing volunteers who have worked tirelessly in challenging conditions. The aim was to make vital food supplies available to communities across Greater Manchester.
You are the people that have not only kept our country going but have also helped warm all our hearts by showing us the very best of human nature.
Prince William
The Duke of Cambridge
Representatives from ASDA, Kellogg’s, John Lewis and Waitrose were also in attendance. These organisations offer significant support to us throughout the year with funding and food donations.
The night was capped off with a special musical performance inside the warehouse by Wayne Ellington and Manchester Inspirational Voices, presented by Band on the Wall. Our fantastic community food members across the city region were able to join via Zoom to enjoy the event.
We are absolutely thrilled that the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge took the time to visit our warehouse and meet our team of dedicated staff and volunteers – during what has been an incredibly challenging and difficult time for the people and charities we support. The COVID-19 crisis has presented a challenge like nothing we have ever experienced and we continue to work tirelessly to get food to the children, families and individuals who need it most across Greater Manchester and the rest of the UK.
Lucy Danger
CEO of EMERGE, which operates FareShare Greater Manchester
A big thank you to our staff, volunteers and everyone who helped us to make the night such a success, including Manchester Markets, Band on the Wall, Wayne Ellington, John Lewis & Partners, the Lord-Lieutenant of Greater Manchester, Greater Manchester Police and of course, FareShare UK.
In October 2020, FareShare did cook and deliver 5,000 meals to local school children in a single October half-term week. All thanks to a partnership between FareShare GM, Manchester United and Manchester United Foundation.
Each day this week, food provided by FareShare will be processed, prepared and packaged into individual meals at Old Trafford kitchen facilities by United staff, then shipped by the club to local Manchester United Foundation partner schools. The schools in turn will provide the meals to children who receive government-funded free meals during term-time.
Six schools are part of the effort:
We will also deliver meals to other local charities as part of the scheme.
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more families are dealing with food poverty. The impact of the virus, in essence, exacerbates an existing problem. Accordingly, with unemployment rising and the economic crisis biting hard, many are struggling with reduced income. As a result, many families and children simply do not have enough food and are going hungry. This initiative does not ultimately solve the issue locally. But it will make a significant difference to the lives of hundreds of families across Greater Manchester.
The serious social implications of the pandemic became clear in back in March. As a result, Manchester United and the Foundation made food poverty a central part of their COVID-19 response.
We’re incredibly proud and humbled to be working with FareShare over October half-term. This initiative will go a long way to ensuring that pupils from our partner schools and families using local food-banks have fresh meals to eat, during what we know is a difficult time for many. We’ve seen first-hand how children from socially challenged backgrounds can be even more vulnerable when they’re not in school, it’s therefore imperative to be present in their lives throughout the school holidays, showing that we care and the Foundation is always here to support.
John Shiels
Chief Executive, Manchester United Foundation
FareShare is the UK’s biggest food charity and is a founding member of the Child Food Poverty Taskforce, set up to help end child hunger in the UK and spearheaded by Marcus Rashford.
The hardship brought on by COVID-19 has presented a challenge like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Demand for food has more than doubled and we are now distributing more than 80 tonnes of food a week – two thirds of which goes to children and families.
This partnership with Manchester United and Manchester United Foundation comes at a crucial time – it’s never been more important to ensure vulnerable children have access to good, nutritious food and we are so grateful for their support.
Miranda Kaunang
Head of Development at FareShare GM
The initiative follows on from a successful collaboration to provide 60,000 meals to NHS staff back in May between United, Manchester United Foundation, Mealforce and the club’s catering supplier, Bidfood.
With our teams back playing, the attention for many has returned to what is happening on the pitch. But our work to help support those in need has not stopped. And it will not stop as we face into the winter and the restrictions continue to impact our local communities.
Many of Manchester’s children are going hungry and they are particularly vulnerable during school holidays. Particularly when they cannot benefit from the meal voucher programme. In parallel with the brilliant work being done individually by Marcus Rashford, we’re proud that the club continues to step in alongside FareShare, the Foundation and their partner schools to help fill this void.
Collette Roche
COO, Manchester United
Marcus Rashford MBE visits us on 22 October 2020 with his mother Melanie. They have interest in our response to soaring demand this Christmas with our new warehouse. FareShare GM will name the warehouse after Melanie Rashford.
The England International’s visit came just after the Government’s rejection of calls to continue the free school meals voucher scheme. These ensure the UK’s most vulnerable children can access food when school is out.
Marcus – whose family relied on free school meals growing up – first partnered with FareShare in March. All in order to support the charity’s work helping to feed children and families in need across the UK. Marcus’ support arrives at a critical time, with:
His tireless campaigning also forges the Child Food Poverty Taskforce. This features a group of leading organisations, including FareShare, which aims to tackle the issue.
Thanks to Marcus Rashford’s support, FareShare Greater Manchester takes on additional warehouse space to respond to the crisis. We will rename the new unit Melanie Maynard House after Marcus’s mother, Melanie Rashford. Marcus praises her frequently for her tireless work to provide for him and his siblings as a single mother. The unit enables us to more than treble the amount of food we can distribute each week.
However, the warehouse space is in need of major refurbishment, which is why we have launched a £500,000 fundraising appeal – calling for financial donations to fund this vital work as we brace for demand to increase further, as thousands of vulnerable families in the region experience their toughest winter yet.
Marcus and Melanie toured the new and existing warehouses to meet the Greater Manchester team of staff and volunteers. The team is working tirelessly through the pandemic to get food onto the plates of people who need it most. In Greater Manchester alone, FareShare is now distributing over 80 tonnes of food each week. In essence, that’s equivalent to over 200,000 meals, especially to vulnerable children, families and individuals.
The real superstars in this country can be found in the heart of most cities, towns and villages. (People) working tirelessly to support our most vulnerable across the UK. As FareShare and other food-related charities approach one of the toughest winters on record, with demand higher than ever before, it is important to connect and offer my support wherever we need it.
When we stumble, there will always be a community to wrap their arms around us and pick us back up.
For many of us, that is FareShare or the local food bank. Food banks who are staffed with selfless volunteers, dedicating their lives to protecting those most vulnerable – those who, in many cases, have fallen into unforeseen circumstances due to illness, personal loss and unemployment. It should be noted that a lot of these volunteers have themselves suffered unemployment as a result of the pandemic, yet they still strive to help others less fortunate. That to me is the greatest example of what we can do, and the difference we can make, when we just work together.
Marcus Rashford
Professional Footballer
We are so grateful to Marcus and Melanie for taking the time to visit our warehouse and meet our team of dedicated staff and volunteers. The Covid-19 crisis has presented a challenge like nothing we have ever experienced and we continue to work tirelessly to get food to the children, families and individuals who need it most. It was an honour to host Marcus and Melanie and we are proud to name our new warehouse Melanie Maynard House in recognition of Melanie and all other parents doing their best across the UK to provide for their children during this difficult time and all year round.
Lucy Danger
CEO of FareShare Greater Manchester
FareShare has been actively working to alleviate child hunger and food insecurity for more than 25 years. Additionally, last summer we supplied more than 700 holiday projects feeding children and families through its ActiveAte campaign – an increase of 75% on the year before.
FareShare welcomes the spotlight that Marcus Rashford’s tireless campaigning has shone on child hunger and are so grateful for his support of our work during this challenging time. The naming of this warehouse is in recognition of Melanie Maynard and in fact, of all Mums in the UK, supporting their children. We are disappointed with the outcome of the vote, which would have been the first step on the road to providing some peace of mind to the millions of struggling UK families. FareShare continues to provide over 2 million meals each week to vulnerable communities across the UK and we stand ready to provide all the food we can obtain, so we can continue supporting those families and children that seek help to access good, healthy food.
Lindsay Boswell
CEO of FareShare UK
Donate here to our fundraising appeal, which will help to triple the amount of food we distribute to children and families.
Our lockdown story is one of many incredible tales we can boast of.
See how hundreds of supporters helped us to redistribute nearly 1,000 tonnes of food to those in need during the lockdown.
When the country went into full lockdown earlier this year, the number of individuals and families relying on us for food nearly doubled overnight. It was the biggest challenge we’d ever faced. But thanks to the extraordinary response of hundreds of organisations and volunteers, we got good food out into communities at a scale we didn’t think was possible.
Our new report, COVID-19: Supporting Greater Manchester during lockdown, tells this amazing story. This is our way to celebrate and give thanks to the fantastic efforts of the food companies, logistics providers, frontline charities, staff and volunteers who made it all happen.
Over four months, we provided an unprecedented 971 tonnes of food for around 50,000 people in Greater Manchester and East Cheshire, including 302 tonnes of fruit and vegetables. This was made possible through the hard work of 224 frontline community food organisations and the support of more than 600 individuals and organisations who provided food, donated, fundraised or volunteered their free time to us.
“We’ve never felt more needed or supported than we did during lockdown. This report is an attempt to share the scale of our efforts and recognise everyone who chose to support us, near and far, as well as the wonderful Community Food Members on the frontline who do such important work reaching out to people in their local area. As a society we’re now much more aware about food insecurity than we were before, thanks in part to people like Marcus Rashford who have put the issue in the national spotlight. Our mission now is to keep up this momentum and support as many people as possible in the difficult months and years ahead.”
Miranda Kaunang
Head of Development at FareShare GM
The story is far from over. There were already 620,000 people struggling to get by in Greater Manchester before the outbreak of COVID-19, and these numbers will inevitably rise as we enter economic recession. Across the country, 5 million people are experiencing food insecurity, but more than half have not yet tried to get help. We need to help them.
We’re currently raising funds for a new warehouse that will enable us to double our output to 7 million meals a year. Can you help us raise the £500,000 we need?
Nearly four million people watched FareShare on BBC’s The One Show to see how we’re helping to support thousands of families during the Coronavirus crisis with food poverty in Greater Manchester. It was great to showcase all the hard work of our staff, volunteers and food donor partners.
We now need your help to raise £800,000 to move to a bigger warehouse. With that, we can handle even more food and ensure proper social distancing between our staff and volunteers.
Thanks to our brilliant staff, volunteers and frontline charities – not to mention a little help from a certain Manchester United football star along the way. More people than ever are aware of food poverty in our communities.
We’re well on the way to getting a record amount of food out this year. In fact, since the lockdown came into effect in March, FareShare Greater Manchester has distributed over 600 tonnes of donated food – enough to create over 1.4 million meal portions.
However, there’s a lot still to do. Before the lockdown, there were already 620,000 people struggling to get by with food poverty in Greater Manchester including 200,000 children and young people. The COVID-19 crisis has hit the most vulnerable the hardest, so we expect this number to grow as we face the economic difficulties to come.
That’s why we want to more than double the amount of food we send out to frontline charities to an amazing 7 million meals a year, but we’ve reached the limits of what our current depot in East Manchester can provide.
Thankfully, we’ve secured a long-lease for a bigger and better warehouse to operate from adjacent to our current depot on New Smithfield Market. The move will enable us to grow and expand our food distribution service, as well as provide better facilities for our hardworking staff and volunteers at our parent charity EMERGE 3Rs and sister social enterprise EMERGE Recycling.
The new building – we’re yet to decide a name – will have more than double the floorspace of our current depot, as well as new kitchen-canteen area. The canteen will ensure our wonderful volunteers get a decent meal themselves and the kitchen area will be used for food training and events.
However, the building is in need of serious refurbishment before we can move in.
Our new depot will be a fantastic space that our staff, volunteers, supporters and the whole community will be proud of but it’s not yet fit for purpose. Old walls need replacing, the concrete yard needs repairing, we need to install a new industrial fridge and two freezers, staff facilities and toilets need refurbishing, we need to fit out ICT for the new office; there’s a long list of things to do. We also want it to be an eco-friendly building that’s fit for the future. We’re planning to install a waste heat recovery system for hot water that reuses the heat generated by our fridges and freezers, as well as solar panels on the roof and an external garden space for staff, volunteers and community use.
Miranda Kaunang
Head of Development at FareShare GM
We’ve launched a Better Building Appeal to help us raise the £800,000 we need to make this vision a reality. Thanks to our generous funders and corporate supporters, we’re already two-thirds of the way there. To get us over the line, we need your help.
Services like FareShare Greater Manchester are now more important than ever. Every penny we raise helps in our mission to:
Donate to our appeal online via Virgin Money, or text FSGM11 and then your donation (e.g. FSGM11£10) to 70070.
Alternatively, if you’d like to donate directly to our bank or set up a standing order, please contact Jay on 0161 223 8200 ex 101 or email finance@emergemanchester.co.uk.
FareShare Greater Manchester is part of the environmental charity EMERGE 3Rs, charity number 1132944. As well as being part of the FareShare Network.
In short, we’re already big fans of hand-washing and PPE. Since lockdown, we’ve gone the extra mile on health and safety. All so that we can keep volunteers safe and secure.
From the beginning of lockdown in March, 47% of our existing team members have had to isolate at home due to age or underlying health conditions, so we’ve needed to welcome a large number of new volunteers to the family to keep our service going.
In line with FareShare UK and government guidelines, we’ve put a strong COVID-19 procedure in place. Above all, we aim to keep everyone safe. These rules include the following.
Elizabeth Lauder, Volunteer Manager at FareShare GM, said: “Thanks to careful planning, we’ve been able to operate safely by working within zones with fixed teams and still keep up with the significant need for our services during the lockdown.
“It hasn’t negatively affected the atmosphere. If anything, people are giving each other a bigger wave than normal at the start of the day and everyone is looking out for each other.”
Over the course of this year’s #VolunteersWeek, 69 people have volunteered safely for FareShare GM. They’re helping to distribute 45 tonnes of food – compared to a pre-virus weekly average of around 25 tonnes. We expect this heightened demand to last throughout the pandemic, so we need volunteers all year round to help us.
Interested in joining our volunteering family? Visit www.fareshare.org.uk/volunteer/
We at FareShare GM are grateful for the support of our local community, including the team at Wright Robinson College. Their willingness to lend a hand during these challenging times has been truly inspiring.
Located only a mile from our warehouse in Gorton, Wright Robinson College has been working with us over the last month to support our food deliveries to frontline charities. Their efforts have helped ensure that those in need continue to receive the vital support they require, even during the school closures.
The team at Wright Robinson College is made up of approximately 30 staff members, including teachers, pastoral staff, and headteacher Mr. M Haworth. Led by Ms. H Thompson, director of Year 7, they have come together to share delivery shifts and make a real difference in the lives of those in their local community.
Their contributions have not gone unnoticed, and we believe that their example serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of community support. Together, we can make a difference in the lives of those around us, and we encourage others to follow in their footsteps and join our efforts to deliver food to frontline charities in Greater Manchester.
“I contacted FareShare to ask if there was anything we could do as a school to help during the pandemic. We have a number of minibuses that were just parked up not being used and a large number of staff who were willing to volunteer, so it was a perfect fit. We’re now taking two of our minibuses down twice a week to deliver food parcels to local charities. It benefits our little community and it’s given us all a feeling of real positivity.
The staff have really enjoyed it – it’s a great opportunity to get out of the house and into the community meeting different charities and making new connections.
Even though the school is now beginning to re-open we’re going to continue supporting FareShare with deliveries throughout this year. As a college we have always impressed upon our young people the need for resilience, teamwork and working with our local community to be the best that we can be, especially in the current climate.”
“Wright Robinson have been a delight to deal with. And they have got food out to organisations that couldn’t have otherwise collected. It’s been absolutely amazing to have their support.”
Helen Gorton
FareShare GM Collections Coordinator
Our experience tells us that much of the food aid work happening in neighbourhoods across Greater Manchester is led and sustained by charity volunteers. We send a heartfelt thank you to all the #foodheroes out there who are making sure that people in need get access to good food.
To celebrate #VolunteersWeek 2020, we’ll be sharing stories of our amazing volunteers every day this week.