Pink Lady apples provided support to 11,000 regional charities across the UK this summer thanks to a partnership with FareShare, the UK's largest charity fighting hunger and food waste.
The leading apple brand supplied a financial donation along with 50,000 apples to FareShare’s Summer Appeal – an initiative launched to help combat hunger and malnutrition amongst families over the summer.
Last year, FareShare supplied fresh food to more than 700 holiday projects and the charity reported even higher demand this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Pink Lady apples were distributed to FareShare depots across the country, who then donated the produce to charitable organisations and community groups across regions including West Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Kent, Greater Manchester and County Durham.
Alison Jones, a development manager at Youth Unity Little Hulton, a youth project which receives donations through FareShare Greater Manchester, said: “Youth Unity is based in one of the most deprived areas in Salford, where the lockdown has had an awful impact locally. Being able to reach out to children and young people is really important so as part of our summer holiday engagement work we have been giving out snack packs to children and young people in the local park.
'Having good quality, easy to handle Pink Lady apples has been really helpful and was warmly received by the young people,' she said. 'When there’s no healthy options available, the young people seek out low cost options which tend to be pretty unhealthy. Budgets and time are tight so not having to go and pay retail prices has saved them funds to use on other activities.”
Heath and Holmewood Healthy Futures is a community development charity based in North East Derbyshire. Chairperson Angela Parry commented: “We feel it is essential that all children and their families have access to good quality fresh produce in order to maintain a healthy mind, body and lifestyle. We have been receiving FareShare food service since 2017, and this has provided thousands of hampers for families in the area, who have struggled due to many issues including Universal Credit migration, benefit caps, homelessness and sadly, in most recent times, Covid-19.
“Our clients were extremely impressed with their Pink Lady apples, many remarked that they didn’t expect to receive such good quality food from our free service,' Parry noted. 'Our service has become their safety gateway during this time, allowing families healthy food provision with no judgement as well as access to benefit advice and emotional support. We are incredibly grateful to all that support our service.'
FareShare regularly accept fresh produce from a variety of organisations, with a belief is that fresh produce is essential for the people it supports and shouldn’t go to waste.
“We were so pleased to receive such positive feedback from the charities we were able to support as part of our project with FareShare,' said Kyla Flynn, PR and social manager for Pink Lady apples. 'Working with FareShare was such a positive collaboration as they provided the network needed to make a difference in communities right across the UK at a grassroots level.
'Nutrition is so vital for children, adolescents and families so we’re proud to have been able to provide fresh fruit to those in need at a particularly trying time,' Flynn added.
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