FareShare Australia meets FareShare UK
Same mission, same name but no relation. Meet Gareth Batty from UK food rescue giant FareShare who has been spending time in our Brisbane kitchen to understand our model of cooking rescued and donated food into nutritious meals.
“I’m mind blown,” says Gareth, CEO of FareShare Yorkshire, which redistributes surplus food to community groups and operates a small training kitchen. “What struck me here was the scale – the infrastructure to produce 5,000-7,000 meals a day is a game changer.
“A lot of (UK) FareShares are working with public health departments who want to see people eating really good, nutritious meals which actually improve people’s wellbeing. It isn’t about calories and getting food to people in any form. It’s about getting food that’s appropriate for that person.”
Gareth says that the UK is experiencing a similar hike in food insecurity. “The pandemic has really shone a light on hidden poverty. We’re seeing a sudden, exponential rise in need – not just from people in entrenched poverty and homelessness but from working families and people who have jobs but are still struggling to make ends meet.”
And what has he learned from FareShare in Brisbane? “The approach really resonates with me. It about putting people first,” says Gareth. “My priority in Yorkshire is to provide people with what they want. It’s about people and it’s about dignity – allowing people to access the same type of food that everyone else is able to access.”
And he has no doubt how FareShare’s homestyle meals would go down in Yorkshire. “I hope, but I also know, they would go down really well.”
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