Volunteering with FareShare

Last week, four Paper Round volunteers headed over to a FareShare depot to help out. They spent their time sorting donations into different categories so food could be delivered to people in need. FareShare are a charity who redistributes unwanted food to charities and vulnerable people. They work with several supermarkets as well as having food drives throughout the year. By teaming up with FareShare, supermarkets are able to cut down on their food waste. Paper Round donate the value of a meal for every food waste bin we collect.

The majority of the warehouse is taken up by shelves for dry goods, whilst a refrigerated section is used to house the fresh items. Fresh foods usually arrive from supermarkets as opposed to individual donors. By working with a variety of organisations, FareShare are able to get a good balance between fresh and long life items. Having this balance means they are able to deliver a variety of goods to those in need – enabling them to have a balanced diet.

Sorting food into categories is crucial to making it go further and organising the warehouse. Categories included coffees, teas, chocolates, biscuits, bread and lots of others. The crates were also organised by weight and expiration date. Sorting foods by expiration dates ensures they don’t go off before they can be distributed.