Co-op members’ £75k for food banks

CO-OPERATIVE members have been thanked for their kindness and support after they raised thousands to help food banks across the region, writes Daniel Blackham.

The £75,000 donation will be shared between 75 food banks, including four in Berkshire.

More than £48,000 was raised by customers swiping their membership cards as Southern Co-op pledged to donate 2p to the pot per qualifying transaction.

Through the co-operative’s Share of the Profits scheme 2021/2022, a further

£22,570 was donated by members.

Colleagues donated the remaining funds via a one-off support payment.

The food banks in Berkshire supported by the scheme are Newbury Soup Kitchen, Lamborn

Food Junction, West Berks Foodbank, and Wokingham Food Bank.

Holly Bramble, Southern Co-op’s community lead, said: “It makes me incredibly proud when I see how much money and food our customers have enabled us to donate to food banks.

“We know times are tough and many food banks have seen donations drop whilst demand increases.

“We want to encourage our customers to keep swiping their membership cards but we’d also thank all of the people at these food banks who make the impossible possible. Thank you.”

This is not the first round of support provided by Southern Co-op.

Between February and December last year, 17,566kgs of goods were donated to food banks by customers and members.

In December, £40,000 worth of gift cards were also shared to food banks across the south to help families and individuals affected by the cost-of-living increases.