Despite the cost-of-living crisis, Tesco shoppers have made the most amount of donations ever in support of foodbanks and local charities.
The chain’s customers donated more than 2.4 million meals during Tesco’s Winter Food Collection initiative at the beginning of December. That brings the total amount of food donated by its shoppers to the Trussell Trust and FareShare in 2022 to the equivalent of 12.5 million meals.
The donations to the Trussell Trust help food banks to provide food parcels to people in crisis, while donations to FareShare support thousands of frontline local charities in communities across the country. Tesco has also topped up all customer donations during the collection by 20% in cash to support the two charities with their operating costs and ensure the food can get to where it is most needed.
Tesco UK and Northern Ireland CEO Jason Tarry attributed the rise in donations – with donations to the Food Collection alone up 53% on last year – to both the generosity of customers and the supermarket’s work to make it easier for them to donate.
“Our customers have always amazed us with their generosity, this year more than ever,” he said.
“We know that household budgets are very stretched, but our customers have been incredible. We had people donating whole trollies of food at our recent Tesco Food Collection, and it is genuinely heart-warming to see so much kindness. The fact that we now have collection points in every store has made it easier than ever for customers to donate, and those donations are really needed.”
In addition to the donations of food, the pre-Christmas Tesco Food Collection saw customers donate more than £382,000 to the charities by rounding up their bills at the till, donate £133,000 through a link from Tesco’s online groceries website and give more than £19,000 of Tesco Clubcard vouchers, which Tesco has matched. A further £20,000 was donated to the charities as a result of Tesco’s Give Back Express pop-up shop in London.
NAM Implications:
- An increasingly needed initiative, especially in this Winter of Discontent…
