FareShare: “Barclays’ support allows us to get food where it's needed”

A growing need

Stories like Sarah's have prompted Barclays to support FareShare's COVID-19 relief work over this difficult winter, to help the charity meet an unprecedented level of need.

FareShare was one of 100 UK charities to receive a donation of £100,000 from the Barclays 100x100 UK COVID-19 Community Relief Fund. The initiative - which forms part of the bank's wider COVID-19 Community Aid Package - aims to help charity partners that are providing vital support to people in UK communities who have been hit hard by the pandemic. What's more, from December until the end of February 2021, Barclays has double matched public donations to the charity - so for every pound given to FareShare through Barclays, the bank has committed to adding two pounds more, up to total matched donations of £1m. In addition, Barclays colleagues have had their donations to selected food charities around the world double matched, including to FareShare in the UK.

Lindsay Boswell, CEO of FareShare, says that Barclays' support has been 'absolutely fantastic', helping the charity's network deal with a new level of challenge.

'It allows us to get food where it's needed,' he says. 'It has also raised the profile of what we do. The endorsement has been really valuable - an organisation that is very well known in every part of the UK deciding to support us with our pandemic response. And then of course, the funding is just extraordinary.'

Barclays' COVID-19 Community Aid Package

Barclays has established a £100m COVID-19 Community Aid Package to support communities impacted by the social and economic crisis caused by the pandemic. It consists of two components: donations to charities working in the communities where Barclays operates; and a commitment to match personal colleague donations to their chosen charities who are helping COVID-19 relief efforts in their communities.

Find out more about Barclays' COVID-19 Community Aid Package.

FareShare: Need to know

FareShare is the UK's largest food redistribution charity, with more than 30 warehouses across the UK. It takes food from the food industry that can't be sold in shops, either because of packaging errors, a short shelf life or overproduction. That food, which is the same as the food you'd eat at home, is then redistributed through a network of 11,000 frontline organisations, across the UK such as homeless hostels, school breakfast clubs, domestic violence refuges, older people's lunch clubs, food banks and hospices. Since the pandemic, FareShare has more than doubled its work, providing the equivalent of more than two million meals a week to people who might not otherwise eat. Find out more about FareShare.