Tesco shoppers in Chesterfield donate more than 8,000 meals during pandemic

During the annual Tesco Food Collection at the end of November, shoppers donated enough packets, tins and boxes to provide 8,616 meals to help the Trussell Trust and FareShare in their vital work.

An additional Tesco Food Collection held in the summer means that shoppers have donated more than 1.3million meals across the whole country.

The supermarket has also provided more than £60million in support to help the charities feed communities during the pandemic.

Food banks in the Trussell Trust’s network are expected to provide a food parcel every nine seconds this winter, while FareShare is supplying more than double the food that it did before the pandemic to 11,000 frontline charities and community groups feeding people across the UK.

Trussell Trust CEO Emma Revie said: “Throughout 2020, communities across the UK have stepped in to provide vital support to people left without enough money for the basics.

"And we have been truly humbled to see how much people are willing to give to food banks in our network as they face their busiest winter ever.

“It’s not right that any of us are forced to a charity for food but thanks to the incredible compassion and generosity of Tesco customers during the Tesco Food Collection, food banks in our network are able to continue to provide the lifeline of emergency support for local people in crisis this winter, while we work in the long term to build a hunger free future.”

Tesco’s head of community Claire De Silva thanked all those who supported the collection.

She said: “Holding the collection in lockdown was always going to be a challenge, but once again we were amazed by the generosity of our customers, and the fact that we have now collected more than a million meals is amazing.

"We know that every single can, jar or packet donated is helping someone who needs support this winter.”