Winter 2019FareShare SlicesA healthy slice of FareShare volunteer news

Winter ‘19

Issue 1

FareShare Slices

Hannah Feld

Hello......and welcome to the first edition of FareShare Slices. My name is Hannah, and I work in the Volunteering Team at FareShare UK. My job is to make sure that our volunteers feel part of the FareShare family, whether this is your first shift or you’ve been volunteering with us for years.

We’ve created this magazine to say a massive thank you to our volunteers across the country, and to share stories about our community of over 1,300 volunteers. If you have a story that you’d like to share – like an event at your Regional Centre, or a charity which is doing brilliant things with FareShare food – then please email me or give me a call.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this edition, and thanks to the Big Lottery Fund for their support of volunteering at FareShare, including funding for this magazine.

Hannah Feld

Volunteering Development Officer

020 7394 2462volunteering@fareshare.org.uk

Winter 2019

In this issue

Network newsThe latest updates from

around the UK

Fighting isolation with a hot meal

and friendshipWe catch up with community

food member Alzheimer’s Support in Wiltshire

Volunteer spotlight FareShare North East’s

Hussin Alanjari

Hearty surplus soup

A delicious way to use up leftover vegetables

Fun and gamesTest your brain with our

puzzle pages

Two minutes with...Marie, one of our amazing

volunteers in London

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FareShare Slices

An honest crustHonest Crust is a new brand of food on the go that is helping their customers do good by supporting FareShare’s work They are displaying the partnership with FareShare on their products, and also plan to run campaigns encouraging their customers to donate, volunteer and spread the word about us on social media.

Honest Crust is also donating £50,000 to FareShare which will enable us to redistribute an additional 200,000 meals.

In December, the company donated sandwiches to our Regional Centres for our volunteers on International Volunteers Day and for their Christmas parties.

You can pick up a pack from Royal Voluntary Service shops and cafes, in hospitals and a selection of university NUS shops.

Head of Fundraising leads the way

Head of Fundraising, Lindsey Cape, dressed in a pea costume throughout December to raise money for FareShare. This radical approach really paid off, because Lindsey raised over £7,500!

Lindsey said: “What a brilliant 25 days. It was really hard to complete this challenge it was but so worthwhile looking at all the money raised.”

Volunteers at FareShare East Midlands were treated to a surprise rendition of “Food Glorious Food” from the musical Oliver! by the Old Aylestone Community Choir.

Choir member and FareShare East Midlands volunteer, Nicholas Muggleton, said: “It was great to see the look of surprise on the faces of everyone. They really didn’t

have a clue that we were going to do that.

“I arranged things with FareShare East Midlands, but we kept it a secret from everyone. We simply wanted to put a smile on the faces of everyone in the warehouse, particularly first thing on a Monday morning.”

Singing for their supper

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Winter 2019

This year’s Tesco Food Collection was FareShare’s biggest yet, with more than 1,600 volunteers signing up for over 1,000 shifts across the country.

The Tesco Food Collection is a national event held over a three day period before Christmas, in which shoppers are invited to donate long-life items during their shop to FareShare and the Trussell Trust. This food enables us to distribute cupboard essentials like pasta, tinned vegetables and tea to the charities we support, alongside the usual deliveries of fresh food. To make sure Tesco doesn’t make a profit from the collection,

the supermarket gives a 20 per cent ‘top up’ donation to FareShare.

The food donated by generous shoppers has added up to over 750 pallets to our Regional Centres, which equates to more than 898,000 meals for people in need. This is a 19 per cent increase on last year’s donated food.

Having volunteers in store asking shoppers to donate vastly increases the food we receive, so we would like to thank everyone who volunteered and helped raise awareness – you helped to make this year’s collection a roaring success.

Our record breaking Christmas Tesco Food Collection

In December, FareShare London welcomed a huge group of willing helpers: 150 Comic Relief staff, who rolled up their sleeves to sort the pallets of donated food collected at the 2018 Tesco Food Collection.

They were a massive help in sorting donations from the general public.

FareShare CEO Lindsay Boswell said: “The Comic Relief team put in an absolutely sterling effort, sorting the food at an astonishing speed. We can’t thank them enough – it made such a difference in the run up to Christmas.”

Comic Relief staff lend a hand

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FareShare Slices4

Fighting isolation with a hot meal and friendshipAn Alzheimer’s charity in the South West is using FareShare food to counter the loneliness and confusion experienced by people with dementia.

For over 25 years, Alzheimer’s Support Wiltshire has been providing frontline dementia services in Wiltshire, from centres in Warminster, Devizes and Trowbridge. The organisation offers day centres and social based carer support services such as home support, carer groups, lunch clubs and music, dance and animal therapy.

It provides meals for about 240 members, volunteers and staff, and has been receiving regular deliveries from FareShare South West for the last six years.

Grant Newton, Head of Day Care Services for Alzheimer’s Support Wiltshire, says the service provides support for both people with dementia and their life partners, who can often suffer from depression and isolation as a direct result of being a full time carer for their loved one.

“It’s all about countering the isolation people experience – for the person with dementia, it can be extreme social isolation, coupled with the increasing inability to care for themselves. For their carer, it is support in a very

dark time for them. They desperately want to keep their husband or wife at home but are struggling to cope. They watch their partner’s personality disappearing and it’s a very hard time for them. People can be lonely in a couple.”

Grant explains how Alzheimer’s Support Wiltshire helps: “We try to keep people away from full time care and give carers some weekly respite so they can carry on keeping someone at

home. Our centres offer highly engaged, homely environments and I can’t emphasise how much the social aspect of food benefits our members. The social side of eating together can be eroded because of the effect of

dementia – but if you offer a social environment around food, you know people – both the person with dementia and their carer – will both eat well.

“People with dementia crave normality, and try

to find their ‘space’ – that’s where a homemade meal comes in, complete with flowers on the table, nice napkins and conversation.

“We used to buy all our food from local supermarkets but now FareShare provides the majority of the food – It’s a win-win because we’re receiving more food and still saving money. This is much needed money that gets ploughed back into our services.

“We couldn’t do what we do without

FareShare food – I can’t stress how

important it is to us”

Winter 2019 5

“Food was a massive cost to us every day to feed our members and volunteers. We couldn’t do what we do without FareShare food – I can’t stress how important it is to us.

“Food is the anchor point of the day. Members often help in our kitchen, chopping vegetables and so on, something which is

very important for some. It’s a whole ceremony around the smell of food, the cooking and the delivery of meals to the table, which transforms people. Depression is common for people with dementia but because the

meals bring people together in such a social way, the members are more engaged and happier.”

“It’s all about countering the

isolation people experience”

FareShare Slices6

Do you have a story about a volunteer you’d like to share? Please get in touch by calling 020 7394 2462

or emailing volunteering@fareshare.org.uk

Volunteer spotlightHussin Alanjari

Originally from Syria, Hussin Alanjari fled the country’s civil war, settling in Newcastle alongside his wife and their three children last year. In the mornings Hussin goes to college to study for an English qualification and in the afternoon he volunteers at FareShare North East, helping in any way he can.

Hussin’s background is in construction and in Syria he also undertook the vital, but dangerous task of accompanying journalists

reporting in the country. When he arrived in the UK he was keen to start volunteering, not just to improve his English, but to

give something back. He said “I wanted to work with FareShare because I know that it helps the poor.”

Rebecca Ball, Volunteer Manager at FareShare

North East, said: “He is one of the hardest working volunteers I have known. Nothing phases him. He speaks very little English and we often have to rely on Google Translate but we have noticed a big difference in the few weeks he has been volunteering with us. He gets involved in everything and has such a positive attitude.”

“He is one of the hardest workingvolunteers I have

known.”

Winter 2019 7

(serves 4-6)

1 red onion, finely chopped1 butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cubed2–3 sweet potatoes, washed0.5kg fresh tomatoes2 pints vegetable stock

Ingredients1. Roast the squash and sweet potatoes in the oven for around 45 minutes.2. In a large pot, gently fry the onions in a little oil until softened.3. Add the tomatoes and stock and simmer for 30 minutes.4. Scoop the flesh from the sweet potatoes into the soup, add the roasted squash, then blitz with a food processor or blending stick.5. Season to taste and adjust consistency by adding more liquid to suit. Serve with natural yoghurt or finely chopped basil.

Method

Transform your leftover veg into a hearty winter soup with this delicious recipe from our friends at the Brighton Salvation Army. Their weekly delivery turns surplus food from FareShare Sussex into breakfast and lunch for local homeless people.

Brighton Salvation Army’s tomato, butternut squash and sweet potato soup

Hearty surplus soup

FareShare Slices8

Across1. Floorshow (7)4. Spooky (5)7. Detection device (5)9. Vertical (7)10. Inactivity (7)11. Measuring implement (5)12. Dictator (6)14. Ecclesiastic (6)18. Copious (5)20. Drawn (7)22. Pouch worn with a kilt (7)23. Diadem (5)24. Admittance (5)25. Spiny anteater (7)Down1. Transported (7)2. Emblem (5)3. Tropical bird (6)4. Mistake (5)5. Dependable follower (7)6. Go in (5)8. Magnitude relation (5)13. Reinforcement (7)15. Reasoned judgment (5)16. Musical passage (7)17. Opportunity (6)18. Part of a church (5)19. Ahead of time (5)21. Obviate (5)

Answers:Across: 1.Cabaret, 4.Eerie, 7.Radar, 9.Upright, 10.Inertia, 11.Ruler, 12.Despot, 14.Cleric, 18.Ample, 20.Haggard, 22.Sporran, 23.Crown, 24.Entry, 25.EchidnaDown: 1.Carried, 2.Badge, 3.Toucan, 4.Error, 5.Regular, 6.Enter, 8.Ratio, 13.Support, 15.Logic, 16.Cadenza, 17.Chance, 18.Aisle, 19.Early, 21.Avoid

Each row, column and box must contain all of the numbers from 1 to 9 and each number can only appear once in a row, column or box.

Provided by:sudokuoftheday.com

Provided by: puzzlechoice.com

Crossword

Fun and gamesSudoku

Winter 2019

How many people does FareShare feed?

Each week, FareShare helps to provide food to 772,000 people. That’s enough people to fill Old Trafford stadium 10 times!

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1. Pho ga is a chicken noodle soup, traditionally from which country?

a. Vietnamb. Chinac. Bangladesh

2. Wiener schnitzel, a national dish of Austria, is what type of meat?

a. Turkeyb. Porkc. Veal

3. What is the main seasoning of goulash, one of the national dishes of Hungary?

a. Cuminb. Thymec. Paprika

4. What is a Bedfordshire clanger?a. A sandwich with corned beefb. A pasty, with a savoury filling at one

end and a sweet filling at the otherc. A beef and vegetable stew

5. Stollen is a traditional sweetened bread from which country?

a. Germanyb. Netherlandsc. Poland

6. What is the most consumed manufactured drink in the world?

a. Orange Juiceb. Teac. Coffee

7. What are the main ingredients of a mocha?

a. Chocolate, espresso and hot milkb. Espresso, chocolate and waterc. Chocolate, water and hot milk

8. What type of food is prosciutto?a. A cream based desertb. dry cured hamc. Bread

Answers: 1.a, 2.c, 3.c, 4.b, 5.a, 6.b, 7.a, 8.b

How many volunteers does FareShare have?

FareShare has over 1,300 volunteers across the UK, and we’re always happy to welcome new volunteers to the community.

How many FareShare Regional Centres are there?

There are currently 21 Regional Centres and 3 sub centres. Plans are in place to open two new centres in the future.

How is FareShare funded?

FareShare is funded through voluntary income which includes funding from trusts and foundations, corporate support and generous individuals, and earnt income which is income relating to FareShare Go and charity members.

Did you know?

FareShare redistributed 28 tonnes of turkey in 2018 – that’s enough to give the whole population of Scarborough turkey for dinner!Provided by to pubquizquestionshq.com

Fun FactsFoodie Quiz

Why do you volunteer at FareShare? I hate to see food going to waste. Good food should go to good people.

Which talent would you most like to have? To play a musical instrument – is it too late to learn?

What’s your favourite thing to have on toast? Cheese and lots of it.

What’s the most interesting food you’ve ever seen in the warehouse? There have been some very strange vegetables but some of the crisps and nuts have the weirdest flavours.

Which fictional character would you most like to meet in real life? Paddington Bear so I could share his adventures.

How do you take your tea? I only drink camomile tea occasionally as I much prefer coffee.

Two minutes with... Marie

Each issue, we’ll be finding out more about one of our amazing volunteers. This time we’ve got Marie from FareShare London in the hot seat.