Derry Tesco shoppers donated over 3,000 meals this Christmas

Customers in Derry’s Lisnagelvin and Quayside shopping centre stores donated 3,046 meals for local people facing food poverty this Christmas.

Overall during the annual Tesco Food Collection at the end of November, shoppers donated enough packets, tins and boxes to provide 800,000 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 through Tesco Food Collections this year.

Tesco tops up all customer donations to the collection by 20%.

This year’s collection was held on November 19-21, and with both charities facing an exceptional need for supplies. 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.

Declan McKillop, Development Manager at FareShare NI, said: “This year has been so difficult for so many people and FareShare has seen demand for our food skyrocket. We continue to provide over two million meals per week to vulnerable communities across the UK, and 90% of the organisations we work with expect demand to remain the same as at peak crisis levels, or even increase through the winter. We are immensely grateful to every single person that donated food during this year’s Tesco Food Collection.”

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 had supported the annual collection in what had been a particularly challenging year.