A volunteer for FareShare Northern Ireland sorts through food rescued from going to waste - it will then be redistributed to charities across the country

13 Aug Client Profile: FareShare Northern Ireland

Posted at 16:36h in Photography Journal by

FareShare is a UK-based charity with a logistics network that collects and receives food from supermarkets and manufacturers, that might otherwise have been needlessly wasted.

They have 21 Regional Centres, allowing them to reach 1,500 towns and cities, and redistribute food to almost 10,000 different charities – from homeless hostels, and breakfast clubs for children, to domestic violence refuges and community cafés.

I first documented FareShare Northern Ireland (NI) for my project on food waste, where I’ve been documenting people and organisations working to reduce the amount of edible food needlessly going to waste.

The food they redistributed contributed towards over 36 million meals, and saved the recipient charities over £28 million.

FareShare Northern Ireland volunteers loads a van with food that might otherwise have gone to waste, which will be delivered to charities across the country
Palets of food delivered at FareShare Northern Ireland - the food might otherwise have gone to waste, but is instead redistributed to charities across the country
A FareShare Northern Ireland volunteer loads a van with food that might otherwise have gone to waste, which will be delivered to charities across the country
Food that might otherwise have gone to waste has been sorted and ready for redistribution at FareShare Northern Ireland
Volunteers for FareShare Northern Ireland logging food rescued from going to waste - it will then be redistributed to charities across the country
A volunteer for FareShare Northern Ireland sorts through food rescued from going to waste - it will then be redistributed to charities across the country

When they were moving to a new warehouse, just outside of Belfast I was commissioned to photograph the opening event.

We heard from donor organisations and recipient organisations, all communicating the impact FareShare has had on their work.

New vans parked outside FareShare Northern Ireland's new warehouse
Lyndsey Boswell speaking to people at FareShare Northern Ireland's opening ceremony of their new storage facility
Manager at FareShare Northern Ireland shows local offical around the new storage facility
Attendee of FareShare Northern Ireland's opening ceremony for their new storage faility just outside Belfast
Opening event of FareShare Northern Ireland's new storage facility near Belfast
A volunteer at FareShare Northern Ireland shows Tesco staff around the new cold storage facility

I was also commissioned to produce a short video, aimed at providing potential volunteers with an insight as to what it meant to be a volunteer for the charity.

This was conducted over two visits – the first was capturing the testimonies of the volunteers and management team, the second of the volunteers in action.

Below is the resulting video.

If you would like to learn more about the work FareShare does, visit their website at – fareshare.org.uk

To see the work I’ve been producing on the issue of food waste, visit my Food Is Wasted site – foodiswasted.com

And if you would like an event photographed in a documentary style, or a short promo video produced to help your organisation or campaign reach more people, then get in touch on 0790 454 9919 or email me via [email protected]

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