We support a wide range of organisations with food, such as hospices, shelters, refuges, soup kitchens, community centres, food pantries, lunch clubs and more.
Some cook all of the food, others hand it all out to be eaten off-site and many do a combination of the two. Our aim is to ensure people have access to the food they need and we intercept surplus food to try meet that need as best possible.
How do we sign up to access surplus food?
The process to become a Community Food Member (CFM) starts by completing this enquiry form.
We will get back to you as soon as possible to talk about your charitable activity and food needs. If you feel we are a good fit for your service, we will then ask you to fill in a more detailed online form which becomes your application. One important section is where we ask what wraparound services you provide. This is because our food partners and our team want the food we provide to not just meet an immediate need but be part of finding a solution to the underlying problems people face.
Once we’ve reviewed your application and raised any queries, we will come to visit your organisation to complete due diligence checks on behalf of the hundreds of food sites who partner in our mission. As relevant this will be a detailed check of your kitchen and / or storage plus your food hygiene training and environmental health registration.
If you wish to apply for membership but are unsure if you are eligible / prepared we’re happy to discuss that with you.
Your first delivery or collection would usually follow within 1 or 2 weeks of our site visit.
Where does FareShare Yorkshire’s food come from?
The food we supply is fresh, varied and good quality. It is classed as surplus for any number of reasons which do not affect the food itself, such as packaging errors, short shelf-life, poor forecasting, weight mistakes and new product development. The food is intercepted from hundreds of national, regional and local food companies and has never reached a supermarket shelf.
FareShare Yorkshire follows stringent policies and procedures for temperature-controlled storage and transportation to meet food safety legislation. We are annually audited by external bodies to the same standards as a food business, where we have been consistently awarded a Gold Standard rating.
Find out more about our food partners
Can you guarantee which foods we’ll receive?
Surplus food is unpredictable; if it could be pre-empted then food companies would ensure it was never made. So we can never guarantee the exact food that you’ll get and it will change every single week.
We will ry to match your food preferences as closely as we can, but you have to embrace that we do not control the volume, variety or shelf life. We provide ever changing foods from vegetables, dairy, fruit, bakery, protein, ready meals, confectionary, drinks and more. We offer ambient and chilled foods in our weekly membership and a supplementary frozen membership.
Is there a cost to my organisation?
As a charity we rely heavily on donations and grants to operate. Our Community Food Members only contribute half the cost of making provision to them, and we fundraise the rest rather than pass on the real-terms cost. This nominal fee is typically the equivalent of £45 per week. In an average year our Community Food Members each receive 5.5 tonnes of food with a retail value of £21,000. This means they can invest scarce funds in other vital services.e.g., an extra support worker, or absorbing higher running costs to keep their doors open.
