NAME OF ORGANISATION: FareShare South West

LOCATION: Bristol, South West

YEAR FOUNDED: 2007

ABOUT: FareShare South West diverts surplus food that the food industry would otherwise waste to organisations that work with vulnerable people.

Investment Purpose: To pilot the first SITR deal through an investment into FareShare, supporting their mission of tackling food waste and supporting the community.

INVESTMENT AMOUNT: £70,000

DATE OF INVESTMENT: 2014

SOURCE OF INVESTMENT: Angel investors piloting first ever SITR deal

IMPACT: Food & Farming; Poverty & Disadvantage; Work & Employment 

ABOUT: Thousands of tonnes of perfectly good in-date food are wasted in the South West each year due to packaging errors, out of date promotions, discontinued lines, veg not up to spec. and so on. At the same time, there people in the UK who cannot afford a healthy diet, among them homeless and elderly people, children, refugees and people suffering mental & physical health problems.

FareShare South West aims to address this imbalance by redistributing quality surplus food to groups working with vulnerable individuals in and around Bristol. The organisation delivers to 150 organisations a week, from refugee projects to children’s breakfasts clubs. It has also developed a catering arm, where surplus food is used to provide a fine dining experience at festivals and larger scale events, as well as general catering services at smaller events. Many of FareShare South West’s volunteers are or have been vulnerable at some point in their lives. So the organisation offers employment opportunities, giving their team the chance to gain an NVQ, or training in food hygiene and food safety.

PURPOSE OF INVESTMENT: In 2014 the UK government introduced the world’s first social investment tax relief (SITR), enabling social enterprises to access loans at a reduced interest rate, and for investors in those enterprises to get a tax rebate. The thriving social enterprise scene in Bristol encouraged a city focused approach to the first Resonance SITR investment fund. The Bristol pilot was set up to identify the demand for social investment from local social enterprises, and to understand how different fund structures might impact on scaling up the social impact achieved by investees. The first organisation to receive investment from this pilot Fund was FareShare South West.

Jacqui Reeves, FareShare South West: “We needed investment to scale up our activities and to achieve our aims of addressing the imbalance by redistributing quality surplus food to groups working with vulnerable individuals in and around Bristol. The investment will help us create real jobs and work experience opportunities for vulnerable people who previously were unable to work.”

Daniel Brewer, CEO at Resonance: “The pilot study showed how Social Investment Tax Relief has the power to channel new finance to growing social enterprises. SITR in this case has made the deal more attractive for both the social enterprise and the social investors. It can help drive down the cost of much needed capital for social enterprises, whilst also delivering a risk adjusted return to investors.”