Food for Good is a new series on our blog where we feature another social enterprise that uses food a way to generate positive social change.
Today we would like to introduce Spareable, a fantastic social enterprise supporting food banks across the UK. Spareable is an ingenious mobile app that allows you to donate foods directly to your local food bank, rather than using a donation point. This saves the foodbank money, frees up their volunteers’ time and allows you to donate more food for the same cost.
How would you normally donate to a foodbank? Maybe you clear out your cupboards and donate anything you don’t need, or maybe you donate when you do your weekly shop. Although any donation to a foodbank is fantastic, sometimes food banks have a surplus of a certain food type and are in desperate need of another.
For instance, they might have enough dried pasta to last for a year, but not enough sauce to go with the pasta. For food banks that distribute emergency food parcels, it is essential that they include a range of foods so that people have balanced diets and do not go hungry.
This is where Spareable comes in.
Spareable lets you see which specific supplies are running low in your local foodbank and then you can donate them through the app. The food then is delivered directly to the foodbank which saves them the extra cost of fetching it from a drop off point. Because Spareable aggregates donations, the foodbank receives more food due to the bulk discounts!
After you make your donation, you can also share your donation to social media to encourage your friends to get involved and support their own local food banks.
If you want to get even more involved in fighting food poverty, the app also lets you register for volunteer shifts at a nearby foodbank! After you fill out the application form and complete your training, Spareable operates an online booking system so that you can sign up for shifts for a time that best suits you.
