Lidl has revealed that it will donate an estimated 1.8 million meals to low-income families across the 2023 school holidays to support the fight against holiday hunger in Britain.
The food will be distributed through Lidl’s charity network partner Neighbourly and other local organisations. It will include donations from its stores, as well as customer donations through ‘Good to Give’ – the discounter’s ongoing campaign to increase the nutritional variety of meals provided for families in need.
The supermarket’s long-standing pledge to help tackle food poverty has resulted in over 25 million meal donations overall since 2017.
Looking for ways to go further, Lidl has most recently introduced a new frozen food donation scheme in partnership with Neighbourly, which sees a rapid supply of surplus limited-time offer food distributed to local charities. This expansion of its existing food donation efforts will see even more support provided to low-income families and those in need throughout the school holidays.
The frozen food donation scheme has benefitted from Lidl store teams’ prior experience coordinating with local charities – and the donations are expected to save a huge 800 tonnes of food waste annually.
Mark Newbold, Senior CSR Manager at Lidl GB, said: “At Lidl, we recognise that the school holidays can be an extremely tough time for a number of families across the UK. Low income familes, who have access to free school meals through term time, lose vital support during the school holidays, resulting in increased demand for donations. We are committed to continuing to go above and beyond for families who have a heightened need during this time.
“Our donations, through both Good To Give and surplus from our stores, are distributed through dedicated charity partners – we’re hugely thankful for all of their work. It remains a priority of ours to provide nutritious food to those in need, and we look forward to continuing to do so in the future.”
