FareShare

About FareShare

• FareShare was set up more than 25 years ago, and is the UK’s largest charity fighting hunger and food waste.
• It takes surplus good-to-eat food, which is unsold or unwanted by the food industry, sorts it in one of its 30 regional warehouses, and passes it onto a network of more than 10,500 charities and charity groups.
• During 2020/21, FareShare redistributed more than fifty-five thousand (55,000) tonnes of food to people at risk of hunger. That’s the equivalent of nearly 132 million meals, or four meals every second.

England footballer Marcus Rashford became a FareShare Ambassador in March 2020 and works with the charity to campaign on child hunger. Over the last year, many companies have partnered with FareShare to help raise funds for the charity.

Challenge

Time is always a stretched resource for those working in the charity sector, but 2020/21 has been particularly challenging for FareShare as the pandemic impacted the most vulnerable communities across the country.

High stress and high demand circumstances require a fast and accurate response to create momentum.

Demands for food almost doubled within the first month of the UK lockdown and FareShare’s urgent COVID-19 appeal calling for donations, food and volunteers took time away from existing communications strategies and upcoming projects.

FareShare needed to monitor the media for opportunities to spread the word of its aims and push its initiatives forward as part of the fight against hunger and food waste across the UK.

FareShare wanted to:

Find contacts in a media sector under pressure to share news and resources with those in need as well as those in positions to help

Curate lists of relevant media

Pitch to journalists and influencers covering vulnerable communities and food shortages during the UK lockdown

Monitor mentions to measure the impact of campaigns in relation to long-term goals and objectives

Solution

FareShare chose Vuelio’s suite of public relations and media software including:

• Media database
• Contact management
• Press Release Distribution
• Media monitoring

‘We’ve had a particularly busy period due to the challenges of the pandemic and needed all-in-one software that could provide what we needed speedily and reliably,’ said FareShare UK head of marketing and engagement James Persad.

‘Vuelio’s fully-integrated media database, contact management and monitoring helps in both a proactive and reactive sense.’

‘It aids us with finding who can share our story and the disadvantage we seek to overcome. It also highlights for us which approaches are most effective for getting eyes on the problem and minds engaged with potential solutions.’ – James Persad

Results

Vuelio has enabled FareShare to quickly redirect campaigns and planning as the issue of food shortages was brought to the fore of the public consciousness during the pandemic.

‘The Vuelio platform helped us maintain our momentum while we joined with high-profile figures to campaign for fair food distribution across the country and continues to aid in our ongoing work,’ says James Persad.

‘Alongside the easy-to-navigate platform, the Vuelio customer support team has been invaluable. It’s certainly been the best customer service I’ve ever received from a media monitoring service.

‘We’re looking forward to helping even more people with our frontline community groups, donation drives and volunteer campaigns this year and in the future, and Vuelio is helping to make this achievable.’