CoolKit makes welcome donation to FareShare

CoolKit has supplied 19 refrigerated vans and donated more than £4,000 to FareShare, a national food distribution charity, which has seen demand double during the pandemic.

The company committed to support to FareShare in June 2019, when approached for a single refrigerated van for the charity’s Yorkshire depot and have now supplied 19 refrigerated vans in total.

Mark Beaton, sales manager at CoolKit said: “Their request was for a single refrigerated van, which was no problem at all, but I recognised there was a bigger picture here and an opportunity to do our bit.”

Following a discussion as to how they could help, CoolKit proposed to open a supply partnership for new refrigerated vans, in which CoolKit would make an annual donation based on 1% of the net spend on new vehicle orders that year.

James Persad, head of marketing and comms at of FareShare, said: “This was a very generous gesture from CoolKit; we are constantly having to add to or replace refrigerated vans in our national fleet, so recognised the value in this offer.

“We are impressed with the consistency and quality of the CoolKit refrigerated vans; they have a good payload, enabling us to deliver more food supplies on each journey.”

During the Coronavirus pandemic, CoolKit helped deliver vital medicine and food supplies, where a team of 25 staff worked to convert vehicles that are essential in the safe delivery of pharmaceutical products and foodstuffs. 

From the end of June 2019 to March 2020, FareShare ordered 14 Peugeot Boxer refrigerated vans from CoolKit.

The pandemic then took hold and demand doubled – seeing FareShare deliver an average of almost two million meals a week to those at risk of hunger through 11,000 frontline charities across the UK.

They made an urgent request to CoolKit to supply two new refrigerated vans to help meet this unprecedented demand.

Glenn McCulley, sales and marketing director at CoolKit, said: “FareShare is a valued customer and we knew how vital it was for them to expand their fleet during the pandemic. But we had an issue; most of our supply chain partners had closed their doors and we weren’t able to register the vehicles they required.

“We certainly didn’t wish to leave them high and dry, so came up with a solution to loan them our own refrigerated vans until movement within the manufacturing sector enabled us to get on with the build of their own vehicles.”

Persad said: “We are working extremely hard to deliver vital food supplies to those in need, so these refrigerated vans play an extremely important role in ensuring that the food reaches people safely. We are very grateful to CoolKit for their support and generous donation at this difficult time.”

FareShare have since received their own two vehicles and have ordered three more as demand continues to peak, which makes 19 in total. The refrigerated vans have enabled food to be delivered safely to all those in need across the country.

CoolKit says a total donation of £4,280 will be made from CoolKit to FareShare this month and they would like to maintain this agreement long term to ensure further donations in the future.