Britain’s biggest supermarket is about to kick off its 12th Winter Food Collection, allowing a different way for shoppers to donate items to those in need ahead of the festive period
Tesco is running an initiative next week aimed at donating millions of meals to households facing hardship this winter, with the help of customers.
The supermarket giant is running its 12th annual Tesco Winter Food Collection. The initiative involves staff putting together pre-packed bags containing much-needed long-life food items.
Shoppers can then buy the bags – which cost between £2 and £3 – and Tesco will give them to food bank charity Trussell and FareShare.
Last year saw Tesco customers donate over two million meals worth of food and the grocer says it is hoping to top that figure this time around by making donation bags available in even more stores.
All large stores already offer them during the supermarket’s Winter Food Collection, but this time 86 of Tesco’s largest Express stores will also stock them. It runs in Express stores from November 25 to 30, and in large stores from November 28 to 30.
The bags are pre-filled with healthy and nutritious long-life items and can be picked up in store and paid for at the checkout. The most-needed items include UHT and powered milk, tinned meat and fish, and sponge and ice pudding.
The donated food is passed to FareShare and Trussell, which will distribute it to charities and food banks to help families who need it most. Research from Trussell shows almost a quarter of children aged under four are facing hunger and hardship, making them the age group most at risk.
Ken Murphy, Tesco group chief executive, said: “Our partners tell us they’ve seen even more families needing their help and they expect demand to increase this winter, so we’re encouraging customers to donate whatever they can to our Winter Food Collection. With front line charities and foodbanks facing exceptionally high demand this year, pre-packed donation bags make it easy to make a big difference to someone else’s Christmas.”
