The National Benevolent Charity has granted Bristol food redistribution charity, FareShare South West, £25,000 to tackle child hunger in the North Bristol area.
FareShare South West take in-date, good quality surplus food from across the food industry and redistribute it to over 260 organisations across the region, in turn preventing surplus food from going to waste. Daily deliveries from their warehouse go to homeless shelters, schools, community centres, refuges and more, with an aim to get food to those who need it most.
FareShare South West’s Fundraising and Communications Manager Phoebe Ruxton says: “The funding from The National Benevolent Charity will enable us to provide enough food for thousands of meals to projects working with children across Avonmouth, Lawrence Weston, Southmead, Henbury and Lockleaze. The initiative will place the child at the centre in the hope that no child in that area will ‘fall through the cracks’ and be subject to needless hunger. Its success will be as a result of the holistic and joined up approach that this funding will allow us to take. A coalition of settings will receive food – targeting places where children may go or directly benefit from – such as primary schools, holiday projects and youth clubs. We also aim to launch several new ‘Community Pantries’ in the area, which will be a shop-like set up where families in need can get low cost groceries – including fresh food items – at the same time as accessing long term support services.”
The National Benevolent Charity CEO Ali Russell says: “Ensuring individuals can meet their basic needs is a driver for our charity. We know that 1 in 5 children in Bristol are at risk of hunger due to poverty. The reality is that many children in the city are forced to miss meals, go to bed hungry or turn up at school without the fuel needed for their days. This markedly impacts a child’s success and future opportunities. We know FareShare South West already do remarkable work in getting surplus food out to a multitude of organisations who in turn provide meals for the most vulnerable in our region, but we wanted to ensure they could really tackle the issue of child hunger in the North Bristol area. With their strategic approach to getting the right beneficiaries on board so that all opportunities to get food to children are given – whether that’s in the morning, after school, during the holidays or at home – we feel confident that the children of North Bristol will fare better as a result of this work.”
The new surplus food deliveries begin in Spring with work currently focussed on planning, research and relationship building.
To find out more about The National Benevolent Charity, visit: https://natben.org.uk/
To find out more about FareShare South West, visit: http://www.faresharesouthwest.org.uk/
