Around 400,000 tonnes of food goes to waste in Wales each year, much of it still good to eat. If just 1% of that was saved, it could be used to provide over 9 million meals—enough to provide three meals to every person in Wales. Simultaneously, a quarter of the population of Wales is facing poverty and struggling to access quality, nutritious food. Thousands of people across the country are experiencing food insecurity and are regularly going hungry.
FareShare Cymru was established in 2010 and delivers surplus, good to eat food that might otherwise go to waste to charities and community groups in every corner of Wales. Today FareShare Cymru has distributed tonnes of surplus food to a network of groups and organisations across Wales that provide food and other essential services to people in need. From cookery classes and lunch clubs in community centres, to school breakfast clubs, stocking the shelves of community pantries and providing hearty meals in homelessness shelters, food redistributed by FareShare Cymru is used by charities in a variety of ways. It enables these groups to bring people together and continue offering their essential support services.
One charity we support is the Huggard, a centre that supports those who are homeless and sleeping rough on the streets of Cardiff. Whilst their Intervention Centre provides people who are experiencing homelessness with hot meals and a place to sleep, crucially, the Huggard also allocates each service user a social worker to support them and help plan their individual journey to lifting themselves out of poverty.
Life within the charity revolves around the Intervention Centre and it’s here the team, led by professional Chef Robert Aherne, prepare meals which are freshly made in the kitchen every day. The Intervention Centre also has medical, showering, and laundry facilities. As well as these essential facilities and services, the Huggard offers skills activities including digital inclusion and literacy courses as well training and volunteering programmes, designed to give service users the confidence to get back on their feet and into the community in decent housing and work.
Adam Rees is Chief Executive of the Huggard: “Our job is to ensure someone doesn’t go hungry, are warm, dry and feel supported and, at the same time, to help them develop the skills and confidence they need to live independently now and in the future”.
“We’re a “stepping-stone”, enabling service users who have faced extreme adversity and hardships access the specialist support they wouldn’t otherwise be able to obtain. Our centre is a place to provide immediate emergency support and interventions but to also prepare people for a life away from our services.”
FareShare Cymru’s role
The food provided by FareShare Cymru is used to make varied, healthy meals. They are free for those unable to pay, and available to others for just £2.
Chef Robert Aherne works with other members of staff and volunteers to create dishes with the food supplied by FareShare Cymru. Rob explains: “the thing that FareShare provides me, is the variety to cook to everybody’s taste. It’s not about me, it’s about these guys and making sure they’ve got a varied, healthy and nutritional diet”. By having access to three nutritional meals a day, clients are able to look after their physical health, which is a key factor in improving their wellbeing.
Service users can also volunteer in the kitchen either on an ad hoc basis or as part of a volunteering programme that leads to qualifications and hopefully work. One of them is Lee: “I got into the kitchen, just at breakfast time and then it became a full-time thing, every day, but it just gave me a focus”.
It’s an experience that Lee intends to take further: “I’m ready to actually get out and get a paid job and move from here, I wouldn’t have done it without the kitchen at all”.
If you would like to read more about the Huggard’s work, you can find out more on their website.