Tesco customers in Manchester can now help provide millions of meals to feed children this summer and beyond, thanks to a new UK-wide scheme announced today.
Currently, 2.3 million children in the UK live in households that have experienced food insecurity in the last six months, a situation that has worsened during the pandemic.
To help ensure children do not miss out on meals Tesco will make a donation for every piece of fresh fruit and veg bought in its English stores, including Manchester, from July 19th to August 8th.
The three-week campaign aims to provide up to three million meals for Tesco’s charity partner FareShare to redistribute to charities and local community groups supporting children.
The new ‘Buy One to Help a Child’ scheme builds on Tesco’s existing food redistribution programme with FareShare, which last year saw Tesco provide more than 29 million meals of surplus food.
Tesco has been working with FareShare since 2016, and, to date, has redistributed more than 120 million meals of food to charities and community groups across the UK. FareShare supports frontline charities and community groups working with children – from summer holiday clubs and breakfast clubs, to community kitchens and groups which supply food parcels to those facing food insecurity.
‘Buy One to Help a Child’ is the latest in a number of community focussed programmes in Tesco’s community programmes, which are helping to build stronger communities across the UK.
The new scheme has been warmly welcomed by FareShare Chief Executive, Lindsay Boswell CBE, who said it would help the food redistributor supply thousands of groups working with children and families across the UK.
He said, “In the last year, FareShare has doubled the amount of food we’re providing to people struggling to get enough to eat. While the lockdown may be easing, we know that food insecurity remains high.
That’s why we are so pleased to see Tesco and its customers helping us to support children who need it. It will make a huge difference to so many people that have been affected by the pandemic.”
Priya Navani, from Manchester, has been volunteering in her local area for the past five years in a bid to give back to those in the community. Throughout her volunteering experience, which currently revolves around the charity Vow Manchester, she has commended Tesco’s ‘outstanding’ food donations.
She commented, “Tesco Droylsden have been incredible from the offset. From generous donations of fresh and bakery goods in the beginning, to now providing the charities I work with a whole plethora of different items that would otherwise be thrown out.
These donations are used across the board, from food parcels to home cooked meals, and we make sure that no items go to waste.”
Marcus Rashford MBE, said: “We all have a role to play in the community and I’m so grateful to Tesco for stepping up to support vulnerable children and families through a difficult time. Whilst collectively we have made progress, numbers are continuing to rise of children going without meals. The Buy One to Help a Child campaign will make a huge difference to the thousands of families who are struggling at the moment to put food on the table.”
