SALISBURY residents donated thousands of meals to help provide emergency food parcels when donating to Tesco's Winter Food Collection.
The collection totalled more than 7, 000 meals with Trussell Trust providing essentials to those who could not afford it and donations to FareShare supported thousands of charities.
CEO of the Trussell Trust, Emma Revie, 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.
The Trussell Trust is expecting to distribute one food parcel every eight seconds over the next three months and the charity has reported that 320,000 people needed to access a food bank for the first time between April and September – the most ever for this period.
Emma added: “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."
Meanwhile, FareShare has more than 1,500 frontline charities on its waiting list seeking food to help them provide meals for people facing hunger this winter.
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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.”
George Wright, Chief Executive at FareShare, said: “With so many people struggling to afford basic essentials this winter, it’s really uplifting to see that Tesco customers have donated so much food to help people facing hunger in the community. Not only did they donate food, but many of them also donated their time by volunteering in store to help us collect much needed items this year too.
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Salisbury customers also donated 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.
Tesco also provides its unsold food to FareShare and altogether Tesco and its customers have given the equivalent of more than 39 million meals to both charities in the past year.
Salisbury shoppers can continue to donate food at permanent collection points at Tesco or make a donation after their online shop. It is also possible to donate at farehsare.donr.com until February 2024.
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