FareShare operates a vital food redistribution network, supporting thousands of charities across the UK. With access to rich data FareShare identified an opportunity. Their core goal was to use this constituency level information to encourage MPs to adopt and promote policies that prioritise the redistribution of surplus food.

FareShare’s mission is three fold: reduce environmental impact, combat hunger, and strengthen local communities.

To provide MPs with detailed yet accessible evidence of their impact, FareShare leveraged Polimapper to create compelling constituency dashboards. The focus was narrowed down to four key metrics for each area:

• Amount of food moved (by tonnes)
• Number of charities served
• Amount of food moved per charity
• Number of meals served

This data reflects food moved and charities served by FareShare between April 2023 and April 2024.  Additionally, we processed and mapped specific postcode data to the corresponding constituencies, pinpointing the exact location of charities supported in each area through drop-pin functionality.

The Email Stakeholder functionality enabled a large number of supporters to lend their voice to the campaign, leading to measurable engagement with policymakers across the UK.

The FareShare team has been making great use of their Polimapper tool so far. From party conferences to parliamentary receptions, the visualisation has significantly enhanced MPs’ understanding of the tangible impact FareShare has on local charities and constituents.

By delivering localised, digestible data, Polimapper has enabled FareShare to boost its engagement with parliamentarians, transforming data into a direct and impactful conversation.

Jonathan Wallcroft from FareShare explains the impact of Polimapper in their work.

What motivated you to visualise constituency data for your events using Polimapper?

“We felt it is easier to communicate with MPs about our work when this is relevant to their own constituencies. Being able to show MPs what we do in their community is a great way of breaking the ice.”

“The practical benefit of the tool is that MPs are able to identify the charities we work with. Visualising this information at the constituency level is helpful for people to make the connection between what we do and what they already know is happening in their constituencies via our partner charities.”

Where have you used Polimapper and how have stakeholders reacted to the data presented?

“We used the tool for our Parliamentary drop-in in June this year. Stakeholders enjoyed that the data was clearly displayed and required minimal interpretation to understand the issues at hand during a busy event.”

“Polimapper is very useful when you have to engage a lot of MPs in a short space of time. In our Parliamentary drop-ins we are able to switch quickly between constituencies to show all MPs attending what the situation is like in their area.”

“We also leveraged Polimapper at party conferences, using an iPad screen. It was useful to show stakeholders what the situation is like in their area so they know it is a real issue and not just something abstract.”

“From an internal perspective Polimapper is also very popular. Because all of the branding was applied to our projects, it feels like we are showing an internal document. It could almost be part of our website.”

How has Polimapper influenced your planning for meetings and events?

“We find that Polimapper is an important part of our events. We would not do an event with stakeholders without ensuring we have provision to show Polimapper on a big screen. We are already making plans to hire screens for events in the future to show Polimapper in the background.”

“The visuals are an important part of events. We are planning to craft our events around accessing Polimapper.”