Bath Rugby’s charity, the Bath Rugby Foundation, has teamed up with Fareshare South West to provide healthy meals to families in Bath.
FareShare South West forms part of the UK’s largest food charity, FareShare, and is one of a network of 21 similar centres located across the country all fighting the same issues: food waste and hunger.
More than 270,000 tonnes of perfectly edible surplus food is thrown away each year. FareShare wants to see that food put to good use.
FareShare South West was formed in 2007 to help tackle the food poverty issue in the South West by redistributing surplus food across the region.
By using quality, in-date surplus food which would otherwise have gone to waste, FareShare turn an environmental problem into a social solution.
The Bath Rugby Foundation started working with FareShare during the summer at the charity’s Project Rugby hub nights.
The relationship proved successful and it has now developed into a large, weekly food order, serving the Foundation’s Lifestyle Change Project (LCP), HITZ and Tackling Health programmes.
Bath families who attend the weekly LCP sessions at Combe Down receive a cooked meal and a food bag to take home.
LCP, which sees youngsters take part in a sporting activity on the rugby field while food is prepared in the clubhouse, takes place every Tuesday from 3.30pm at Combe Down RFC.
Bath Rugby Foundation’s Delivery Officer, Dan Hine, said: “The partnership with FareShare has enabled the Foundation to support more families over a longer period of time.
“With one in five children in Bath living in poverty, the simple fact is too many young people are experiencing hunger on a regular basis. We see it too often: Children attending our programmes are hungry when they arrive.
“Thanks to the partnership with FareShare we are able to provide children and their families with a healthy, nutritious meal.”
FareShare South West CEO, Julian Mines added: “It is an absolute pleasure to work with Bath Rugby Foundation, delivering good food to support them in tackling the child hunger issue in Bath.
“They do great work with our food, using it to provide targeted food support to those most in need in their community. Long may our partnership continue!”
