Shoppers help stores’ food appeals be a festive success
THOUSANDS of meals have been provided to people in need this Christmas thanks to the efforts of customers at Tesco and Co-op stores in the Echo area.
At Tesco, shoppers were asked to donate long-life items to help charities FareShare and The Trussell Trust as part of their usual shop with Tesco topping up the value of donations by 20 per cent.
In Loughborough a total of 3,000 meals were donated by generous customers at local Tesco stores to the two food charities, FareShare and The Trussell Trust.
Food donated to FareShare is distributed to charities and community groups who use it to provide meals for vulnerable groups such as isolated older people and those in homeless shelters, while the food donated to foodbanks in The Trussell Trust’s network is given in emergency food parcels to people referred because they cannot afford to feed themselves and their families.
Lindsay Boswell, CEO at FareShare thanked Tesco customers for their generosity.
“The food donated at the Tesco Food Collection will make a tremen- dous difference to the thousands of charities and community groups that FareShare supports. These groups are doing amazing work with some of the most vulnerable people in our community.”
Samantha Stapley, operations manager at The Trussell Trust, said: “Our foodbank network has spent the last month making sure that people referred to them with no money for food don’t go hungry this Christmas. This work has been made possible thanks to the incredible generosity of Tesco customers, store colleagues and volunteers during the Food Collection.”
Meanwhile Central England Cooperative stores in Loughborough, Shephed and Mountsorrel donated more than 6,000 items to help those in need over the Christmas period, as part of the company’s Christmas Foodbank Appeal.
Martyn Cheatle, Central England Co-operative Chief Executive, said: “Everyone involved with the society has been delighted with the amazing response by customers and members to our Christmas Foodbank Appeal.
“As a co-operative, we are proud to be able to be able to support the great work of local foodbanks across our trading area during the festive season and throughout the year.
“In just five weeks, we helped collect over 60,000 items across Leicestershire, providing 16,000 meals to those in crisis and making a real difference in our communities.”
Loughborough’s Aldi store was also involved in a nationwide food initiative which saw 32 charities across the East Midlands make the most of unsold festive fare, with each participating store giving away more than 1,600 meals on average.