Recycling Lives Charity is helping to feed thousands of people a week while tackling food poverty and reducing food waste.

The charity is appealing for volunteers who can help to select items and deliver goods.

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The centre has a large warehouse facility on Preston’s Red Scar Industrial Estate.

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Recycling Lives Charity has delivered millions of meals to communities in the last year, helping charities and community groups to feed people struggling with the cost of living crisis.

Its Food Redistribution Centre, run in partnership with national charity FareShare, takes surplus stock from supermarkets and suppliers to deliver to community groups, charities and schools.

Its work helps groups to feed communities while also reducing food waste, preventing thousands of tonnes of food from going to waste.

The Centre needs support for the full day, morning (8am to midday) or afternoon (1pm to 5pm) shifts on weekdays.

The roles cover:
– Driving/Delivering goods – driving vans to deliver items to Local Collection Points in Cumbria. This requires a full driving license and a CPC license is of particular value;
– Selecting food and goods – ensuring each group receives the right items for their target group. This is a manual role, requiring a good level of fitness;
– Supporting logistics – taking accurate records of goods into the Centre, using operational systems. This is a combination of administrative and manual work;
– Rotating stock – managing movement of stock, focussed mainly on the chillers and freezers, to minimise potential waste. This is also a manual role, requiring a good level of fitness;
– Allocating goods – recording the items selected and sent out to groups. This is an administrative role requiring close attention to detail.

Volunteer Coordinator Vivienne Ashurst said: “Our volunteers are an essential and highly valued part of our operation, each bringing different skills and experiences to deliver our vital service.

“In return for their time we support each volunteer to enjoy their own benefits from the experience, whether that’s supporting job seekers to develop transferable skills or ensuring retired professionals can use their experience to help communities.

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“Volunteering can be a transformative experience for anyone – it is a way to develop skills or meet new people as well as give back to your community and help others.

“We’re hoping to hear from anyone who’d like to help us to feed people most in-need in these challenging times.”

The Food Redistribution Centre supports more than 125 groups across Lancashire and Cumbria, including grassroots charities delivering ‘meals on wheels’ services to the elderly and school breakfast clubs supporting families in need.

To find out more, please contact: vivienne.ashurst@recyclinglives.org or 07387 015425

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