The newly opened Tesco stores in the Isle of Man are all set to participate in a UK-wide food donation drive this week.
The 12th annual ‘Tesco Winter Food Collection’ is taking place in all Tesco stores this week from November 28 to November 30, and will see customers being encouraged to donate long-life food to support the charity ‘FareShare’.
Donations to FareShare will help support the organisation’s network of 8,000 local charities and community groups, helping to feed struggling people in local communities across the UK.
The charity expect to see extremely high demand for their services this winter, with the Food Collection looking to provide ‘vital extra donations’.
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Ken Murphy, Tesco Group CEO, 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 frontline 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.
‘We’ve boosted our ongoing support to FareShare with a donation of £500,000 this year to help them meet additional demand through the summer and winter holiday periods when family finances are facing the most strain.’
To help with the food drive, Tesco is also making its pre-packed customer donation bags available at even more stores in an effort to top the 2 million meals donated at last year’s collection.
The bags, which typically cost between £2 and £3, are pre-filled with healthy and nutritious long-life items and can be picked up by the Isle of Man customers in store and paid for at the checkout.
The donated food is then passed to food banks to help families who need it most.
Kris Gibbon-Walsh, FareShare chief executive, said: ‘For more than 12 years, Tesco has been a brilliant partner, providing vital support to FareShare and communities across the UK.
‘The collection enables us to collect long-life, staple ingredients that complement the fresh surplus food we redistribute. If you’re able to donate just one item at your local store, you’ll be helping to provide a meal for someone in hardship this winter.’