Cheetham Hill’s Tesco Superstore has recently revealed the impact is has made in the community, after calculating it has provided 35,076 meals worth of surplus food to local groups throughout 2020.
Through Tesco’s charity food partner, FareShare, the store saw its surplus food collected 321 times as part of its Community Food Connection programme, averaging out at almost 100 meals provided to charities each day.
Poppy Soldatos, Community Champion at the store, reflected on 2020’s year of community, saying that the store’s contributions are extremely important to local groups.
On top of the food, distributed through food charity Fareshare, Tesco Cheetham Hill’s has also donated additional special request items to organisations across the area over 200 times since last January.
Poppy said: “What we do here at the store has a real personal touch. I keep in regular contact with local organisations and charities to try and support them every way we can, whether that’s donating anything from food items to clothing to health care.
“Nothing goes to waste in our store, I try to donate everything I can to our local charities.”
Throughout 2020, Cheetham Hill Tesco has generously donated items to an extensive range of charities, initiatives, and events.
Amongst the regular donations were baking essentials for children at St. Anne’s Primary to bake cookies for charity, sweet treats for the children’s ward at North Manchester General Hospital, and packed lunch essentials for children’s food packs made by Communities 4 All.
Poppy continued: “One initiative I’m really proud of being a part of in 2020 is the North West Ambulance Service Welfare Bus. The designated bus has been going to different hospital sites to provide snacks and drinks, donated to them by the likes of Tesco, to ambulance service staff. With most coffee shops in hospitals being forced to close throughout the pandemic, we’ve been told that the Welfare Bus has been like a lifeline to them to the key workers that used it.”
As well as donations of food items, the store has also contributed other everyday essentials to charities and groups over the course of last year. Cheetham Hill Tesco has given everyday essentials to Winning Hearts and Minds Manchester to create winter packs for the vulnerable, socks and underwear to Barnabus Manchester, clothing to A&E at North Manchester General Hospital, and pamper products to Manchester Libraries to make gift packs for the elderly.
As an additional extra, the store’s charity bookshelf has also raised over £1,300 for local charities throughout the year.
Reflecting on the store’s year of giving, Poppy said: “The pandemic has really shone a light onto the importance of selflessness and supporting the local community. We are so proud of the aid we have been able to offer to local organisations, both big and small.
“However, our donations don’t end in 2020. We are excited to see what opportunities there are for us to continue our efforts throughout this new year. We have already jumped straight into some fantastic new initiatives, including donating snacks and beverages to local COVID vaccination centres. We’ve donated these items to the Cheetham and Crumpsal programmes for the staff and volunteers to enjoy – and not just because I’ll be marshalling there myself!”
Local organisations, schools or projects that require support can email poppy at cheethamscommunity@yahoo.com to discuss how best the store can support their work.
