Supermarket Asda donates £5million to foodbanks

Asda has donated the money to its partners the Trussel Trust and FareShare, who operate throughout Yorkshire, in a bid to keep the nation’s most vulnerable fed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The donation will provide over 4 million meals to families in poverty impacted by Coronavirus, as well as giving more than 3000 charities the ability to access free food over the next three months.

In light of recent events, the supermarket has also extended its accessible shoppinghours for NHS workers. They will be prioritising NHS workers in their larger stores every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 8-9am.

Furthermore, the chain has announced that they will be recruiting an additional 5,000 people to help deal with the increase in demand.

CEO Roger Burnley, who is originally from Dewsbury, said: “These are the most extraordinary of times and I am keenly aware of our responsibility to help feed the nation – both by keeping our shelves stocked and deliveries moving – but also by providing employment opportunities where we can and supporting our charity partners to help the most vulnerable in our communities.

“The efforts my colleagues are going to support our customers every day are fantastic, and we will continue to recognise their efforts wherever we can.”

As well as following the Government issued hygiene advice, Asda is asking for customers to use card and contactless payments to reduce the amount of cash handling for staff.

"We all have a clear responsibility to look after each other during this crisis, particularly our most vulnerable groups. I was heartened to see how our customers respected this priority access and so am proud to be able to extend it to more regular days and also include our amazing NHS colleagues can access our stores with a little more ease," said Mr Burnley.

Emma Revie, chief executive of the Trussell Trust commented: “Food banks face an unprecedented challenge in the coming months. As the coronavirus outbreak unfolds, more people are likely to need emergency food at exactly the same time as fewer volunteers are able to help.

The resilience of food banks is nothing short of outstanding, and we’re working closely with our network to help ensure that wherever possible, people unable to afford the essentials can access help. But this is not easy. That’s why this support from Asda will make such a difference.

This funding will help us recruit and train new food bank volunteers across the UK, and support the coordination of packing and delivering pre-made food parcels to people who need a food bank’s help, but can’t leave their homes. Protecting people from hunger cannot fall to food banks alone, and we’ll be continuing to push for crucial changes that get money into the pockets of people who most need it – while that work is underway, Asda’s support will help us ensure the safety of everyone who needs a food bank during the pandemic.”

Lindsay Boswell, chief executive of FareShare added: “In this unprecedented time of COVID-19 crisis, we are immensely grateful to our partner Asda for their incredible support of £5 million. This will aid FareShare to adapt its models to reach the 1million vulnerable people who we currently serve and work with our network of frontline charities to achieve the vital doorstep food deliveries and new food distribution methods we know are so essential at this time.”