Modern Slavery Statement

This statement sets out FareShare’s actions to understand all potential modern slavery risks related to its business and to put in place steps aimed at ensuring there is no slavery or human trafficking in its own business nor in its supply chains. This statement relates to actions and activities during the financial year 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019.

As part of the charitable sector, FareShare is committed to ending slavery and human trafficking. We do not operate in a high risk area for modern slavery within our own operations, we are absolutely committed to preventing slavery and human trafficking in all our activities, and that our supply chains are free from slavery and human trafficking.

Our business

FareShare is a food surplus redistribution charity.

We work to alleviate hunger by capturing surplus food from the food industry and redistributing it to the people who need it, via more than 9,000 charities and community groups across the UK. We work with 21 Regional Centers across the UK, 16 of which are run by partner charities. Through our FareShare Go service, we also match supermarkets and charities directly via digital technology and get even more surplus food to those who need it.

Our policies

The organisation operates the following policies that link to Modern Slavery and our approach to dealing with concerns in all areas of our operations:

1. Whistleblowing policy. We encourage all our employees, volunteers and other partners to report any concerns related to the activities of the organisation. The organisation’s whistleblowing procedure is designed to make it easy for employees to make disclosures, without fear of retaliation. Employees who have concerns can contact Protect, an independent charity who we retain as advisors, as well as being able to go to our HR Manager directly.
2. Employee code of conduct. The organisation’s code makes clear to employees the actions and behaviour expected of them when representing the organisation. The organisation strives to maintain the highest standards of employee conduct and ethical behaviour at all times.
3. Recruitment policy. The organisation uses only specified, reputable agencies to source labour, as well as adhering to high standards within our own recruitment.

Our partners

We work with over 500 food producers and suppliers across the UK, who deliver their surplus good quality food for us to pass on to our frontline charities. We do not audit their policies and supply chains, as our scale vs theirs and the complexity of their supply chains makes it unfeasible.

Who is responsible?

Responsibility for the organisation’s anti-slavery initiatives is as follows:

• Policies: The Company Secretary, FareShare’s Finance Director, is responsible for ensuring that our policies are fit-for-purpose and updated. The policies above are contained within the employee handbook, in the remit of the HR Manager.
• Investigations/due diligence: Internal investigations are managed by the HR Manager and department, with escalation directly to the CEO. Volunteer investigations are managed by the Head of Volunteering, with escalation directly to the CEO.
• Escalation: Escalation is to the CEO and then to our chair of trustees, in case of safeguarding and whistleblowing concerns that have not been resolved through our usual procedures. Details of how to contact them directly are in our whistleblowing policy.
• Food partners: Our CEO, supported by the Senior Leadership Team, holds responsibility for acting on information about our food partners and modern slavery.

Performance indicators

The charity reports on whistleblowing and safeguarding incidents in monthly KPIs, which would include reported modern slavery concerns.

Looking Ahead

Over the course of the next financial year we will continue to enhance our procedures to help us identify, prevent and mitigate any risks of modern slavery or human trafficking in relation to new and existing suppliers.

Approval

This statement has been signed on their behalf by of FareShare by our Company Secretary.

Richard Huxtable
Director of Finance and Company Secretary
18 February 2019