FareShare Sussex & Surrey highlights food scarcity crisis

Food waste charity FareShare Sussex & Surrey is appealing for support as it expands its vital services further into Surrey during the cost-of-living crisis.

 The charity explained despite Surrey’s affluent reputation, the county also harbours high levels of deprivation and need, in its Impact Report for 2023.

FareShare Sussex & Surrey is working with local charities, community partners and Surrey County Council to open a new warehouse and depot in Surrey later this year, to enable them to take different types of food for example frozen produce which they otherwise could not accept.

The charity is recruiting for volunteers to support its work and for local food suppliers and producers to donate their surplus food.

 Dan Slatter, CEO, FareShare Sussex & Surrey said: “Over a number of years we have been crossing the borders into Surrey to support a limited number of partners with surplus food, but we knew we needed a base in the county to reduce food miles and increase the number of people we could support.

“We are working with local charities, community partners and Surrey County Council to open our new warehouse and depot in Surrey.

“We have honed our skills in Sussex for 20 years and want to help people in Surrey who are trying to make ends meet during rampant food inflation and a cost-of-living crisis which has hit the most vulnerable members of our community the hardest.”

 FareShare Sussex & Surrey is a charity which rescues and redistributes surplus food, saving waste, reducing carbon emissions and fighting hunger supporting more than 150 local organisations. 

In 2022 alone, the team worked alongside more than 150 active volunteers to deliver

1,014 tonnes of nutritious quality surplus food across the region and 2.4 million meals.

Nationwide, 9.3 million adults and four million children are now living in food poverty.

This represents nearly 20% of the UK population – this number has almost doubled in the last year, the charity said.

In FareShare Sussex & Surrey’s 2023 Impact Report the charity warned food inflation remained high, while food supply was unpredictable, at a time when vulnerable people need its help the most.

 Slatter continued: “Food insecurity is being driven by supply chain disruption caused by Brexit, climate change and the war in Ukraine, while sky high energy prices are adding fuel to the fire of the cost-of-living crisis.

"Sadly, the result is that the volume of surplus food available to FareShare Sussex & Surrey is declining just as our charities and community groups need it the most.”

 Rachel Kelley, CEO of Higgidy in Shoreham said: “We've been donating any extra pies, quiches and rolls to FareShare Sussex & Surrey since we first started out back in 2004. We believe no good food should go to waste and FareShare Sussex & Surrey felt like the perfect fit to help us with this.

“We can't believe this partnership is almost 20 years old and over the years our relationship has grown to support each other. As well as donating our delicious pies, we have collaborated on sustainability issues and the Higgidy team have enjoyed volunteering at the FareShare Sussex & Surrey warehouse, seeing first-hand what happens to our donated stock.

“It really is a blooming partnership and we are excited for what we can achieve together in the years ahead.”

For more information and to download the Impact Report, please visit:

https://faresharesussexandsurrey.org.uk/

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Editors notes

FareShare Sussex & Surrey rescues surplus food from businesses, supermarkets and farms. This food is nutritious, in-date, and safe and includes a high proportion of fresh vegetables, fruit, meat and fish. If the charity did not rescue this food, it would be at risk of going to waste. Instead, they deliver it to charities, schools, food banks, community pantries and fridges and other organisations serving vulnerable people.

In 2022, the charity delivered food for 2.5 million meals supporting 17,370 people a week at risk of food poverty. Food poverty is a huge and growing problem, and 13.4 million people including 4 million children in the UK live in households that struggle to afford to buy enough fruit, vegetables, fish and other healthy foods.