Help the Hungry: Sainsbury’s forges new partnership with charities delivering surplus food to people in need

Supermarket donates £3m to food aid charity FareShare so surplus stock can be delivered to local food banks

Food banks across the UK are struggling to meet the huge surge in demand for help, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to cause a decline in volunteers and a shortage of food donations from the public.

Sainsbury’s has donated £3m to the leading food aid charity FareShare and pledged to make its surplus produce available to the group for distribution, so struggling food banks can get more of the supplies they need.

The Independent’s Help The Hungry campaign has been supporting the work going on across Britain to ensure that everyone has enough to eat during the outbreak.

In London, FareShare has already teamed up with fellow food surplus charity The Felix Project to get food out to NHS staff, people self-isolating for health reasons and families feeling the economic impact of the crisis.

Lindsay Boswell, CEO at FareShare, said the new nationwide partnership with Sainsbury’s and the Trussell Trust — the UK’s largest network of food banks — showed how big businesses and the voluntary sector could achieve “incredible things” by working together.

“It will enable FareShare to dramatically scale up the amount of food we can distribute right across the UK, enabling us to get more food out to the thousands of charities and community groups, fellow food redistribution organisations, food banks and pantries,” she said.

“It is these groups who, under the most extraordinary circumstances, are doing everything they can to safely deliver food onto the doorsteps of those who are most at risk.”

Sainsbury’s will identify stock available within its supply chain that food banks are most in need of, and a group of logistics companies — including Palletforce and XPO Logistics — will help FareShare move it from regional depots to smaller groups in need.

The partnership comes as the Trussell Trust warned that more people are likely to need a food bank’s help because of the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak. 

“This unique partnership beautifully articulates how society is pulling together in the fight against Covid-19,” said Emma Revie, chief executive of the Trussell Trust. “All these organisations have innovatively adapted their services … and we are truly grateful that they are helping food banks to continue to provide their essential community service.”

FareShare volunteer Jed organising food delivery in London (FareShare)

Judith Batchelar, director of  the Sainsbury’s brand, added: “Coronavirus has impacted everyone in the UK and it’s important that we support each other now, more than ever.”

Responding to the enormous scale of the crisis, FareShare, The Felix Project and City Harvest have teamed up to create the London Food Alliance.

In a bid to make sure food gets out to those who need it as efficiently as possible, the London Food Alliance is now coordinating with all 32 London boroughs to make sure the new, council-run community hubs are also well stocked with supplies.

The Independent is asking food aid charities across the UK to contact us at helpthehungry@independent.co.uk to tell us about your project and what problems you are facing right now.

You can help us build a directory of ways that our readers can help the hungry in their area — through money, volunteering and food donations. Find out more about how you can support the Help the Hungry campaign here, or follow this link to donate to our campaign in London in collaboration with the Evening Standard.