WARRINGTON Tesco customers can make a big difference to the lives of people facing hunger and hardship by donating long life items during the company’s 13th annual winter food collection.
Last year, generous Tesco customers donated 1.9 million meals at the collection directly to Trussell and FareShare. Both charities expect to see continued demand for their services this winter with FareShare expecting to distribute the equivalent of more than 40 million meals worth of food in communities across the UK.
Trussell research shows over 14 million people in the UK are now facing hunger, including 3.8 million children. They predict that their community of foodbanks will need to give out an emergency food parcel every ten seconds this winter to meet need.
FareShare continues to see high levels of need and say that more than a third of charities now primarily serve families with children, or services for children.
In response to this, Tesco is once again making its pre-packed customer donation bags available in stores to make donating the most needed items as easy as possible for customers. All large stores already offer them during the supermarket’s Winter Food Collection, but this year, 86 of the largest Express stores will also stock them to make donating even easier no matter where you shop.
The bags, which typically cost between £2.00 and £4.00 are pre-filled with healthy and nutritious long-life items and can be picked up in store and paid for at the checkout. The donated food is passed to FareShare and Trussell, who will distribute it to charities and food banks to help families who need it most.
Tesco’s Winter Food Collection, the biggest in the UK, runs in its Express stores from 24th – 29th November and in large stores from 27th – 29th November.
The most-needed items are:
1. Cereal, oand and instant porridge
2. Tinned and dried soup
3. Tinned beans
Winter is typically the busiest time of year for Tesco’s charity partners who see a marked increase in the number of people needing to turn to them for support. This comes on top of an already challenging year, with food banks in the Trussell community providing 2.9 million parcels for people facing hardship in the past twelve months – a 51% increase compared to five years ago. As temperatures drop and bills continue to rise, food banks say they are now bracing themselves for another tough winter as levels of need remain exceptionally high.
