We were born in 2007, out of a conviction that good food should not go to waste, especially when people in the Midlands are going hungry. This belief is as central to our work now as it was a decade ago.
Nationally, homeless charity Crisis and supermarket giant Sainsbury’s jointly established FareShare UK in 1994. The first depot opened in London and during the next 10 years Crisis FareShare, as we were then called, expanded by opening regional centres across Britain, using a social franchise model.
In 2004, after evolving over a seven-year period, FareShare became an independent charity in order to support its growth and broaden its remit. This meant more people experiencing food poverty (beyond homeless people) could benefit. Four years later – in July 2008 – FareShare Leicester (as we were then called) came into being.
The Diocese of Leicester (part of the Church of England) was instrumental in our foundation, providing much-needed funding and support. A decade on, the Bishop of Leicester and his team continue to be strong supporters of our work.
As our resources and volunteer body has grown, so has our reach. And within a few years, our presence in the Midlands had grown significantly. Today, we work in six counties – Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire – and the scope and scale of our activities continues to increase dramatically as those organisations who support people who live in poverty increasingly find out about the scale of the help we are able to offer.
