Feeding the one thousand

19 Aug 2015

University of Manchester students have donated well over half a tonne of unwanted food and drink items to food distribution charity FareShare Greater Manchester, which will provide 1,300 meals to vulnerable people who need it most

In partnership with Manchester City Council, Manchester Metropolitan University and FareShare Greater Manchester, we encouraged students to donate any unwanted food at the end of the academic year to our food collection boxes located at each campus. This food was collected and distributed around Greater Manchester by FareShare, to be used by partner charities such as homeless hostels, food banks and women’s refuges, to help feed those who need it.

Not only has this helped provide meals to those in need, it helped prevent all those food and drink items donated from being disposed of into landfill, and helped minimise food waste.

Miranda Kaunang, Development Manager at FareShare Greater Manchester, said “We really appreciate the support of the University of Manchester students who donated their surplus food at the end of a busy exam-filled term. Our volunteers will distribute it to people in food poverty in Greater Manchester. Thanks and hopefully we will be back next year!”

Alice Johnson, Waste Prevention and Engagement Assistant at The University of Manchester, also said “This project is about more than just meals. The organisations FareShare Greater Manchester supply to are places that provide life changing support, such as breakfast clubs for disadvantaged children, Pensioner luncheon clubs, and domestic violence refuges. The University of Manchester is proud to have been able to contribute to this vital organisation, and is proud of how much our students have donated.”

A smaller collection of food was also donated to Fallowfield Foodshare, an organisation that helps to alleviate food poverty in the local area. The items that they collected were donated to homeless shelters in Fallowfield and others in food poverty.

This is the first year the food donation project has run, and it is a really positive result for a pilot project. The project will return next year, bigger and better and even more successful!

University of Manchester students also donated 5877 bags of unwanted clothes, electrical goods and other items to the British Heart Foundation, diverting 46.9 tonnes away from general waste, and raising £81,800 for the BHF! Hopefully when this is combined with Manchester Metropolitan student donations and off-campus donations by residents, organised through Manchester City Council, this will pass the £250,000 mark!