SUCCESS STORIES / FOOD FOR ALL
“...FareShare is a national food charity that works with communities to relieve food poverty. Until the Grace Foundation UK lent a hand in 2006 this fantastic service was not running in Leeds. Then a new surplus food delivery service was established and has been opened for the needy people in Leeds."
The service will initially run from FareShare’s South Yorkshire depot in Barnsley. Most people probably think of surplus food in terms of odds and ends, the left overs on the supermarket shelves or the time expired posh sandwiches given away to a deserving cause. This is nothing to the volume of foodstuffs bull dozed all year round into huge holes in the ground, around 17 million tonnes.
FareShare approached the Grace Foundation UK to fund the lease of a dual compartment van for one year and pay the costs of running the vehicle which include insurance, fuel costs, organisation overheads and volunteer training. This would allow surplus food to be delivered to 10 agencies in the Leeds area. One of these agencies is St George’s Crypt, a place of last resort for the desperate, close to the busy bars and bijoux restaurants in the well-heeled centre of Leeds. Although since its inception in 1930 the priorities have changed with the time, the key objective of relieving hardship amongst disadvantaged people and promoting evangelism remain constant. The Foundation has worked very closely with Martin Patterson, the Crypts Fundraising Manager, to ensure that the disadvantaged people of Leeds all have the opportunity to eat at least one healthy meal per day.
The Grace Foundation UK was delighted to be able to support this initiative. Funding has enabled food to be delivered on a daily basis which has ensured that people attending the agencies get a hot nutritious meal each day. Jason Richards from the Foundation said “a healthy diet is fundamental to everyone, we are pleased that people across the Leeds area will now have access to a regular meal made from fresh produce”.
The North East Leeds Primary Care Trust is watching to see how the pilot multi-agency approach to providing free food the Crypt works out.
“The food is a vehicle for the rest of the work we do, which is mostly solving complex accommodation needs. We hope it’s a win-win situation. By getting a drug addict in to have a good meal you are getting them access to training and counselling. When their life is most chaotic, sitting down to eat a meal is when you see them as individuals instead of their collection of problems. All this has been made possible by the Grace Foundation UK.
Martin Patterson, The Crypt, Leeds
