Shoppers in Lichfield have been thanked for helping to donate thousands of meals to locals struggling this Christmas.
The Tesco Winter Food Collection in aid of FareShare and the Trussell Trust’s food banks saw city residents hand over the equivalent of 17,250 meals.
It comes as food banks say they expect to distribute the equivalent of a food parcel every eight seconds across the country in the next three months.
Tesco CEO Ken Murphy said:
“The generosity of our customers is truly amazing. At a time when people are facing financial strain, they still went out of their way to support our charity partners.
“From a single carton of long-life milk to a whole trolley of items, every customer who donated helped us to make this one of the most successful Winter Food Collections ever.”
Ken Murphy
In addition to the donations of food, the collection saw customers help towards donating more than £300,000 to the charities by rounding up their bills at the till and donating through a link from Tesco’s online groceries website.
Emma Revie, CEO of the Trussell Trust, said:
“People’s generosity never fails to amaze me and it is wonderful to see that once again communities and Tesco stores across the UK have come together to support their local food banks and ensure that they can be there for everyone who needs them this winter.
“Everyone should have enough money to afford the essentials and when food banks in our network are expecting to provide a food parcel every eight seconds between December and February, it’s clear that something is wrong.
“That is why we continue our long-term work to achieve a future where no one needs to access emergency food and, while we do that, every item that is donated will make a real difference to addressing the urgent levels of need this winter.”
Emma Revie