Sadly, there has not been a reference about FareShare from the UK Parliament since April 2024. I have written about FareShare early and the most recent one was at the beginning of December which can be seen here. In mid-October, two of the MS Welsh Members of the Senedd referred to FareShare, Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan and Huw Irranca-Davies. The document I published in December provides the links for both of those Welsh comments.

However it was very interesting that a few days ago, Huw Irranca-Davies MS mentioned about FareShare again twice. On Wednesday the 12th February which is here in is comment and then a week later on Tuesday 18th of February he mentioned it again here. Much later he referred to FareShare on 29th April of 2025 which is shown below on the ‘5. Statement by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs: Building on Wales’s Recycling Success‘. However there have been no other comments from MPs who have referred to FareShare so far on comments yet on the end of June currently.

It would be good to hear from the FareShare on Wednesday 12th February:

The investment within the local food partnerships, just to say, will also inspire new supply chain opportunities for locally based farmers and local businesses. It’s already being demonstrated through initiatives such as the Food Systems Development Project delivered by Bwyd Sir Gâr Food, which supports communities to develop horticultural businesses and to access key public sector markets. We’ll continue to work with community redistribution hubs like FareShare and others to ensure that surplus food reaches those who need it and avoids it going to waste, and we will work in close collaboration with the future generations commissioner, supporting public bodies and public services boards to embed food as a focus area within local-level planning and delivery. I really welcome the focus of the commissioner’s seven-year strategy, ‘Cymru Can’, on food activities and work streams already under way to encourage public bodies across Wales to include food in their well-being plans. The point that was raised: we need to see this not just for patients, but for staff. We need to see this in all aspects of our public bodies. Our work will complement and reinforce this.

And here is the items for Tuesday 18th February:

Building this fairer, greener Wales is at the heart of everything we do in this Welsh Labour Government. That’s why we are working in partnership with FareShare Cymru, where we have taken action to fight food poverty and are also tackling food waste. Indeed, I visited with the Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government their facilities in south Wales, to witness how our investment of £3.9 million supports FareShare Cymru to redistribute over 6,600 tonnes of surplus food. They have provided over 15 million meals to Wales, to over 441 community groups and charities like Huggard, helping the homeless in the heart of Cardiff; Hope House just outside Llanelli, which helps young people with drug and alcohol addiction; Y Pantri in Colwyn Bay, Wales’s first social supermarket; and North Cornelly Luncheon Club near Bridgend, which brings older people together, as well as helping to reduce the greenhouse gas impacts of food waste.

And a few minutes later he mentioned on that same item on 18th Feb:

On the issue of food waste, surely, the first point of food surplus—. It shouldn’t be food waste, it’s food surplus, and should be going to actually feed people, and also to build that circular economy, so it’s not waste, it’s actually feeding people. So, when I was, on Monday, with Jayne Bryant, my Cabinet Secretary colleague, at the investment that we’ve done in FareShare here in south Wales, looking at the work that they are doing, and they can do more, indeed—. But, actually, the first point of call is that you get it to people who can use it and feed themselves well, and providing alongside that, by the way, menu advice, cooking advice and so on. So, they’re doing things now like pop-up kitchen stuff as well—really, really excellent.

So here is the item at the end of 29th April 2025:

Food insecurity is a pressure on households right across the country. It undermines health and it contributes to obesity, disease, and indeed to malnutrition. The impact of food insecurity and food poverty are real, and they are lasting. That’s why, since 2019, we’ve invested over £26 million to support those most in need, including through local authorities, Trussell Trust foodbanks, and FareShare Cymru. Initiatives such as Food Power, Healthy Start, Big Bocs Bwyd and the PIPYN pilot in Merthyr Tydfil are supporting people to make those healthier choices and improving food literacy. In February, I was delighted to visit Fareshare Cymru to see their work, and how they have made 15 million meals available since 2015. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the staff and the volunteers at all such organisations for their continued support of these initiatives. The local food partnership funding will support making healthy, locally sourced food more accessible to more people across Wales.

And he mentioned later on that session:

So, it’s not only—. And this was one of the big takeaways that I’ve come across before, but also from my recent visit in February to FareShare Cymru—the work that they’re doing now, not purely in diverting what would be waste food, but actually diverting that into people’s menus, but then working with people to actually educate parents and children in cookery and in how to use some of these ingredients as well.