Our team is celebrating the immense effort of two colleagues who have just reached an incredible milestone this month.
Duncan and Terry spend their days collecting pallets, cages and trolleys of precious surplus food. This benefits over 44,000 people every week across Yorkshire – more than double the amount we were serving in 2020.
Back in 2018, we took the brave step of introducing a 7.5-tonne lorry into our operation for the first time, through the support of WRAP.
This was in response to a waiting list of over 100 charities that needed our help and the availability of more surplus food across the county.
We realised that many food sites had relatively small amounts of surplus food on either a daily or weekly basis, which didn’t warrant the use of big lorries, but was too much for our vans to collect. Over the last 8 years, we’ve been fortunate enough to work with an increasing number of partners who trust us with their surplus food for the benefit of people in hardship. This includes companies such as Asda, Arla, IPL, Brakes, Warburtons, Hovis, M&S, Haywood & Padgett, Premier Foods, Bidfood, Northern Bloc, Betty’s and Taylors of Harrogate. Whether it was a stack of bread, a trolley of milk or a half pallet of mixed stock, Duncan and Terry have driven many tens of thousands of miles to make sure it didn’t go to waste.
With the support of Sampreeth, Hannah, James and Andy, they have now reached an incredible milestone of 9,700 collections from food sites across the north of England.
In total, this has prevented the wasting of 4,200 tonnes of good-quality surplus food.
Across Yorkshire on a daily basis, from hospices and soup kitchens through to refuges and village halls, people are able to access the food they need because of the hard work behind the scenes of both drivers.
We’re incredibly proud of this achievement. Duncan and Terry have been tireless in rescuing surplus food for the benefit of hundreds of organisations. Through all kinds of weather, weekday or weekend, their role is often a lonely one, but their efforts are absolutely critical to our organisation. As far as we’re aware, this is the first time a charity in the UK has reached this landmark of 10 million meals through the use of 7.5 tonnes lorries. Together with Sampreeth, they are a small but mighty team, and this achievement is phenomenal”
– Jonathan Williams
Every day, surplus food is available across Yorkshire that could instead help feed local communities. If your organisation produces or handles surplus food and would like to support FareShare Yorkshire’s work, we’d love to hear from you.
By donating good quality surplus food, you can help charities, community groups, hospices, refuges and food banks continue supporting thousands of people every week across the region.
To discuss food collections or partnership opportunities, please contact us at: offers@fareshareyorkshire.org
