FareShare Midlands

FareShare Midlands, part of the national FareShare UK network, plays a vital role in fighting food waste and hunger across the midlands from the east coast to the Welsh border. Operating from three dedicated warehouses, the charity redistributes surplus, in-date food to more than 650 local community groups, reaching 60,000 people, the majority of whom live in some of the UK’s most deprived areas.

Growing need, limited capacity

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, rising operational costs and ongoing economic uncertainty pushed demand for FareShare Midlands’ services to unprecedented levels. Local community organisations, many of which depend on FareShare, struggled to stay open. At the same time, food insecurity across the region worsened. Internally, the charity faced a need to restructure and adapt its service delivery model. Decades-old processes were no longer sufficient for the scale of support required. 

To remain sustainable, FareShare Midlands had to rethink how it worked, enhance its efficiency, and build long-term resilience.

Space to strategise, tools to grow

That strategic rethink was made possible through a £167,000 loan from Social Investment Business, backed by the British Business Bank’s Growth Guarantee Scheme. The funding enabled FareShare Midlands to first stabilise cash flow, giving the organisation vital breathing room to meet rising demand and maintain uninterrupted services. It then provided the opportunity to invest in operational efficiency - enhancing logistics, strengthening fundraising capacity, and improving delivery systems to support smarter, scalable growth.