Manchester founded, Evolution Money, has partnered with local hunger and food waste charity, FareShare Greater Manchester, to provide meals to those in need across the city.
The partnership began in late October, when Evolution Money organised a donation of 280kg kilograms of food, enough to provide 662 meals, from KW Foodstores in Bolton, to be donated to FareShare Greater Manchester. Since then Evolution Money have hosted food collections and events throughout their office, helping to collect a further 1,083 meals worth of donated items.
When the partnership began, Evolution Money set a target of providing 750 meals to the charity, a target of which they have exceeded, by more than twice that number.
In their most recent activity with FareShare Greater Manchester, a number of the team visited the FareShare Greater Manchester warehouse, at New Smithfield Market in Openshaw, where they helped to sort donations and pack food to go out for delivery. Some of the volunteers also joined van drivers to help deliver food packages to the community.
FareShare Greater Manchester works in partnership with FareShare UK to take surplus food from the food industry that can’t be sold in shops, for reasons such as packaging errors or a short shelf life, but is still good to eat, and diverts it to people in need via frontline charities and community groups. The regional operation is run by partner charity EMERGE and currently serves a network of over 230 organisations across the region – including school breakfast clubs, homeless hostels and older people’s lunch clubs – who between them used FareShare food to provide over 3 million meals last year for people at risk of hunger.
Commenting on the partnership, Robin Russel-Fisher, Finance Director of Evolution Money, said: ‘’At Evolution Money we are passionate about giving back to the community, we support a number of local and national charities throughout the year.’’
‘’FareShare is an incredible charity, making an invaluable difference to those in need and we’re proud to be able to support them on their mission to fight hunger and reduce food waste across the UK.”
Robin added, ‘’Aided greatly by the generous donation from KW Foodstores in Bolton, we are thrilled to have smashed our target of meals provided for the community and look forward to continuing to support the charity.’’
Miranda Kaunang, Head of Development at FareShare Greater Manchester, said: ‘’Without the support of companies like Evolution Money we would not be able to support as many vulnerable people as we do each week, nor save hundreds of tonnes of food from waste each month.”
‘’Currently over 2 million tonnes of good-to-eat surplus food goes to waste within the UK supply chain each year – yet at the same time, one in eight people struggle to afford to eat. FareShare works with the food industry and, thanks to the support of partners such as Evolution Money, ensures good food gets onto the plates of people who need it most.”
Award-winning Evolution Money, is part of the Manchester-based, Darwin Group. Since its launch in 2011, Evolution Money has grown to be regarded as one of the fastest growing finance companies in the UK and Manchester and this year was a finalist in the M.E.N Business of the Year Awards 2019.
