The definition of great leadership has been steadily evolving for
many years, and this year leaders were put under new scrutiny thanks to
their response to the coronavirus pandemic.
We saw new leaders emerge – Chris Whitty and Jonathan Van Tam came to the fore in the daily briefings. Sophie Ellis Bextor kept a smile on peoples’ faces with her weekly lockdown kitchen disco performances. And Marcus Rashford inspired a nation to rally against child hunger thanks to his championing of school meal provisions and support of the FareShare charity.
This year, Marcus Rashford’s work has inspired us to join his mission to reduce child hunger in the UK. Instead of sending Christmas cards and gifts this year, we‘ll be making a donation to help support FairShare‘s important work, providing an extra 12,500 meals.
FareShare is an idea that makes sense in so many ways. We have a chronic food waste problem in the UK, and we also have families that struggle to put food on the table. In 2019, 30% of the UK’s children were living in poverty. During lockdown, almost a fifth of UK households with children went hungry – that’s double the level from before the pandemic.
With the help of an army of volunteers, FareShare redistributes
surplus food (typically more than 24,000 tonnes of it) to more than
10,000 charities, who turn it into nutritious meals for almost a million
vulnerable people every week.
Last year, they provided enough food for nearly 60 million meals at charities and community groups across the UK. During coronavirus, FareShare have tripled the amount of food they handle and opened 11 new warehouses across the UK to meet demand.
Watch this video to find exactly how FareShare turn surplus food into meals for those who need them. And remember, just 25p is enough to create one more nutritious meal.
If you’d like to join scarlettabbott in making a donation to FareShare, you can do that here.
