We are very excited to announce that The Felix Project and FareShare are merging to form a single UK-wide organisation.
FareShare and The Felix Project are already the UK's two leading charities in surplus food redistribution. By uniting it is hoped we will move closer to achieving our goal of a UK where good food is never wasted and no one goes hungry.
We have put together a short Q&A to answer some of the questions you may have. If your question isn't listed, get in touch and we will do our best to help.
Jump to questions for: Supporters, Suppliers, Community Organisations, Volunteers
FareShare and The Felix Project are already the UK's two leading charities in surplus food redistribution, sharing the mission to reduce food waste and fight food insecurity. Uniting will form a bigger and bolder organisation with greater reach, strength, and national impact.
We think by combining forces, we will be able to pool resources and create more efficient ways of working and provide the food industry with a single point of contact and consistent partnership across the UK.
It will help us fundraise more efficiently, open up new and potentially larger funding streams and help to support the overall financial resilience of the combined organisation.
It will also give the two charities a louder voice when it comes to campaigning and their work to influence national policy on food waste and food insecurity. This was demonstrated by the success of their award-winning joint campaign for a national £15m fund to tackle food surplus on farm.
The new joint organisation will continue to have the same mission of reducing food waste and fighting food insecurity.
The new charity will lead with the Felix name and will keep the signature and the Felix green. Both charities will work together on a complete brand refresh to be launched in 2026.
One of the things we have jointly recognised is the strength of the personal and moving story behind The Felix Project and the power it has to motivate support across the board.
Alongside this, FareShare’s 30-year legacy of influencing the UK food industry to tackle food waste will form an integral part of the refreshed brand identity.
In the meantime, both charities will continue to use their name throughout the transition period.
Nothing will happen straight away, this merger presents a fantastic opportunity for both charities to evaluate their brand and work together to create a new stronger identity.
This will be a phased transition. We will work with colleagues and experts to ensure we make the most of the opportunity.
Charlotte has been a CEO for over 15 years, including at UK wide charities. She has led The Felix Project for over 3 years. In that time, she has been responsible for a large amount of growth and expansion of the charity which has helped them become a dynamic and forward-thinking charity.
Kris’ expertise of FareShare’s nationwide operations, and his relationship with the network, will enable him to focus on the logistics of successfully merging the charities and supporting its growth, while Charlotte will continue to remain in a public-facing role, and will be pivotal in building partnerships and championing the new charity’s advocacy and policy work.
Operationally, for the time being, London will be staying the same. For all warehouse and kitchen colleagues, the day-to-day rescuing and redistribution of food will continue to operate as before.
Outside of London, FareShare is a national charity that has 17 network partners including The Felix Project, covering all four UK nations, who manage 35 distribution warehouses.
Three regions, Merseyside, East Anglia, and Southern Central, are directly managed by FareShare, these will come under the management of the new organisation
We will be working closely with our network and charity partners while this transition takes place, to ensure that we can continue to get as much food to people who need it as possible, but operationally depots day-to-day operations will run as normal.
We’re still working through the detail, but the network will remain at the heart of our work. The merger is about strengthening partners to deliver more food and greater impact locally, not changing the independence that makes them effective.
We have formed an Integration Team from both charities, that will support a smooth integration that will create an even greater impact on tackling food waste and food insecurity.
The merger is a 12-to-18-month transition starting mid-2025. Both charities will continue to run separately but collaboratively until the end of 2025.
The new unified organisation should be fully established during 2026. We have an integration team, covering the day-to-day integration work and guiding the teams that will shape how we come together.
The team is made up of functional leads and experts, representing both FareShare and Felix. They will be responsible for managing day-to-day change and ensuring a clear roadmap of change.
Decisions will also be made by the Executive Leadership Team, with guidance from Trustees.
One of our founding aims is to reduce the negative impact food waste has on the planet. We also take this approach as an organisation and do everything we can to reduce our overall environmental impact. This means we already are very careful to not over order on items like clothes and marketing materials.
Now the merger has been formalised, we will continue to monitor our stock levels and ensure new items are not ordered unless really needed.
We will also explore all avenues on how and where to dispose of any items that are no longer branded correctly in a responsible and sustainable manner.
Your donation will continue to support our London operations, which will all continue to run as normal and require a huge amount of funding.
Money will be distributed where the need is greatest, if you would like to just support London, contact supporter care and the change can be made.
At the moment, no changes will be needed as we use a trusted external fundraising platform that enables us to facilitate your donation.
Yes, and more. The new organisation will continue to have the same mission of reducing food waste and fighting food insecurity and by combining our efforts we hope to create a more efficient organisation with greater reach, strength, and national impact.
Together in 2024/25 FareShare and Felix distributed the equivalent of 148M meals to over a million people via around 8,000 community organisations, but demand is rising, and 8 in 10 charities fear they cannot keep up. This merger will unlock more food, strengthening communities when they need it most.
As part of the due diligence process, we have met with significant funders. There has been unified support for the merger.
The Felix Project currently operates a very flexible model for sourcing food. Our in-house food supply team work with around 400 suppliers to bring in its own food supply.
We also currently receive a proportion of our surplus from FareShare and already work collaboratively with their team .This model will continue for the time being and the Felix food team will retain their current relationships.
Currently less than 1% of surplus food is rescued and redistributed to people but there is plenty out there. The merger will improve and widen our infrastructure and build on our current agile and innovative approach to food rescue. It will give us the ability to attract new food suppliers, take more from our existing and offer the food industry a unified partner across the UK.
This will ultimately mean together we will be able to rescue more food and reduce food waste levels, which will in turn benefit the community organisations we serve and the environment.
No, the food we get from both inside and outside of London will continue to be given to the 1,200 organisations The Felix Project supports.
No, we will continue with business as usual.
Every year The Felix Project provides food to around 1,200 community organisations and the merger will not change this. Operations in London will continue as normal and you should see no change to your food supply. The community team will stay in place and all deliveries should stay the same.
We know demand for our services is growing and this merger will help us unlock more food which should ultimately mean the charities we supply will get more food.
We have no plans to make any organisation reapply; all services should remain in place and continue as they do now.
FareShare Go and Felix Connect will stay as they are and services will not be disrupted.
As we look to make services more efficient, changes may take place. Community organisations will be consulted, and any disruption will be kept to a minimum.
Ultimately this merger will streamline services and lead to us being able to rescue more food, which will mean more is available to the organisations we support.
The Green Scheme will stay as it is and services will not be disrupted.
As we look to make services more efficient changes may take place, but community organisations will be consulted, and any disruption will be kept to a minimum.
There are no plans to bring in a fee for London community organisations, however this could be reviewed.
For at least the first year as a combined organisation, fees for Merseyside, East Anglia and Southern Central depots will be kept in place and reviewed after this period.
The Multibank will continue to be run in the same way, and the merger should not affect the day-to-day operation of getting non-food items to people in need.
The Multibank network already has operations across the country and as a new national charity we will look to strengthen these relations, develop new relations with new suppliers and improve our non-food distribution networks.
We do not see any immediate change to any of the systems or ways of working that volunteers use.
If anything was to change in the future to improve efficiency or for operational reasons, then we would endeavour to limit the disruption and impact on volunteers as much as we can.
At the moment, the day to day running of The Felix Project will not change and we are not expecting to see any changes to the volunteer team and staff members you work with.
The integration team are looking at all aspects of staffing for both organisations over the coming months and if anything was to change, we would ensure our volunteers are kept up to date as quickly as possible.
At the moment the day to day running of The Felix Project will not change and we remain fully committed to helping Londoners in need.
The main aim of the merger is to create bigger and bolder organisation with greater reach, strength, and national impact and we believe that over time, will also help us in increasing our support to Londoners in need.
We recognise that there will be volunteers who have been with The Felix Project for many years and over that time have seen the organisation grow and change. However, the fundamental aim of the charity, to reduce food waste and feed people in need, has not changed.
The more support we get, the more we can do and so while we recognise how difficult change can be for people we also hope they understand that by growing we will be able to do more.
We could not operate without our volunteers, they are at the heart of both organisations, and we will do all we can to look after them and keep them on the journey with us as we enter this new and exciting chapter.
Yes, in the future, this merger could mean more nationwide volunteering opportunities.