Shoppers dig deep for needy families
Thousands of meals donated to foodbank
Generous shoppers at Tesco have donated thousands of meals to people struggling over Christmas.
The supermarket giant teamed up with Renfrewshire Foodbank to encourage their customers to dig deep and donate over the festive period.
And in Renfrewshire a total of 24,807 meals were donated.
Shoppers were asked to donate long-life items to help people in need as part of their usual shop with Tesco topping up the value of the customer donations by 20 per cent.
In Renfrewshire, volunteers from the foodbank held a threeday appeal at the three local Tesco stores in Paisley East Lane, Renfrew and Linwood at the start of December.
Samantha Stapley, operations manager at The Trussell Trust, the charity which runs Renfrewshire Foodbank, 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.
“Thank you for your support - your generosity has stopped hunger this Christmas.”
Across the UK, Tesco customers helped donated more than 3 million meals worth of food to the Trussell Trust and FareShare.
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.
The 20 per cent top–up donation provided by Tesco helps the charities in their work, by providing funding to run the foodbanks and distribute the food to those in need.
Tony McElroy, Tesco’s head of communications in Scotland, said: “Every year we are taken aback by the generosity of customers who give to the Food Collection in our stores across the UK. We know that this annual collection makes a real difference in Scotland and we would like to thank everyone who has donated, volunteered or helped with the Food Collection in store.
“Food Collection is just one of the ways that Tesco has been supporting the two food charities.
“A donation to the charities has also been made for every fresh turkey sold in Tesco stores and for every pack of Tesco Finest Candy Cane flavoured crisps sold over the festive period.”
The supermarket’s clothing range F&F has also been selling festive-themed ‘hats with a heart’ with a donation of £1 from each hat split between FareShare and The Trussell Trust. More than 164,000 of the hats have been sold.