Cooking free, nutritious meals that feed dignity and wellbeing

Our vision

Everyone has access to a nutritious meal every day.

Our mission

Mobilise volunteers to cook delicious, free meals from rescued, donated and our homegrown ingredients to improve the lives of Australians in hardship.

FareShare is a charity which has been cooking free, nutritious meals for people doing it tough since 2001.

We believe that every Australian deserves a nutritious meal, regardless of their circumstances or location.

FareShare operates Australia’s largest non-profit kitchens in Melbourne and Brisbane where chefs and volunteers work hand in hand to cook the best possible meal for every person in need.

Each year FareShare transforms rescued, donated and our homegrown food into millions of delicious, healthy meals that feed dignity and wellbeing for Australians experiencing hardship. A homestyle meal shows that somebody cares and has an immediate impact.

Our healthy meals are given away free to frontline charities such as soup vans, homeless shelters, women’s refuges, First Nations organisations and groups providing disaster relief.

The need for meal relief has never been higher with the soaring cost of living, frequent natural disasters and the lingering effects of the pandemic hurting millions of Australians.

As a charity, we rely on the generosity of philanthropic foundations, businesses and individual donors.

When you support FareShare, you are not just feeding someone in need. You are giving them a ready-to-eat meal which takes the worry out of going hungry and the stress out of cooking. You are making them feel better.

FareShare's process

1

Rescue

We save surplus, quality food from landfill, cutting food waste and fighting pollution.

FareShare operates a fleet of refrigerated vans in Victoria which collect surplus and donated food from supermarkets, wholesalers, manufacturers and farmers. This includes meat, eggs, dairy and vegetables which we cook into free, nutritious meals. In Brisbane, Foodbank supplies the majority of ingredients for our kitchen including significant quantities of meat and vegetables. We transform this food by cooking it into balanced, nutritious, ready-to-eat meals.

2

Grow

We grow vegetables in kitchen gardens to add nutrition to our cooked meals.

FareShare manages three kitchen gardens in Melbourne to help us secure a diverse supply of fresh vegetables for our meals. The gardens are tended by volunteers under the direction of our kitchen garden manager and a small horticultural team to grow more than 100 tonnes of vegetables a year. Crops grown include zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, sweetcorn, carrot, eggplant, pumpkin and sweet potato. All vegetables harvested in the kitchen gardens are brought back to our Abbotsford kitchen to be added to our meals.

3

Cook

We cook with care and creativity to transform food into nutritious, delicious and well-presented meals.

FareShare cooks rescued food at scale. Our chefs and volunteers work hand in hand to cook thousands of free, nutritious meals every day in our Melbourne and Brisbane kitchens for people experiencing hardship. We ensure our meals are packed with protein and fresh vegetables to provide people in need with as much nutrition as possible. Our ready-to-eat meals include casseroles,stir fries, soups, tagines and braises. Our Melbourne kitchen also prepares a popular line of savoury pastries such as sausage rolls, vegetable rolls, quiches, and egg and bacon pies. Cooking is supervised by experienced chefs supported by volunteers in modern, production kitchens.

4

Feed

We share our cooked meals with frontline charities supporting people struggling to access nutritious food.

FareShare’s meals are distributed free to hundreds of charities including soup vans, homeless shelters, women’s refuges, community food banks, First Nations organisations and groups assisting natural disasters. Meals cooked in our Brisbane kitchen are also distributed by Foodbank to its network of local charities. For many people, a FareShare meal will be the only meal of the day and our chefs do everything possible to make it count.