Sainsbury’s donates £3mn to fight food poverty
Melanie May | 23 November 2022 | News
Sainsbury’s is giving £3mn to fight food poverty through donations to charities and the launch of a new programme (23 November) to support communities with access to food both now and into the future.
Nourish the Nation, a long-term programme, will see Sainsbury’s work with charity partner Comic Relief to fund initiatives designed to tackle food insecurity and ensure communities have access to balanced, nutritional, and sustainable food sources.
As part of the campaign, between 23 November and 24 December, Sainsbury’s is encouraging customers to donate if they can and has pledged to match donations up to £1.5 million, with this funding going to Comic Relief.
Advertisement
Customers can make donations to Comic Relief in store and online at Sainsbury’s, and in store at Argos, or by donating Nectar points. Customers can also donate food at the food donation points in store which will go to local food charity partners.
In addition, Sainsbury’s is donating £1.5mn to Comic Relief, FareShare and key redistribution partners to support communities this Christmas.
- £500k will go to Comic Relief’s On the Breadline Winter Appeal with the Independent and Evening Standard (money directed to FareShare)
- £100k to the Felix Project
- £250k to Trussell Trust
- £50K to City Harvest
- £50k to Community Shop
- £50k to HisChurch
More support from Sainsbury’s
This year, through its partnership with Comic Relief, Sainsbury’s is already supporting two organisations; Feeding Britain and The Bread and Butter Thing, to help alleviate food poverty.
Working with Feeding Britain, funding from Sainsbury’s will support four food clubs in Glasgow, Gateshead, London and Nottinghamshire. Each club aims to prevent hunger, reduce food waste and ultimately lift people out of poverty through a combination of affordable fresh ingredients for families to take home, cookery sessions, and wraparound support to maximise family incomes, manage debts and budgeting, and mitigate the rising cost of living.
The Bread and Butter Thing runs more than 75 mobile food clubs, delivered in partnership with local community hubs, and provides wraparound support to members such as debt advice, budgeting and employability skills. With support from Sainsbury’s, The Bread and Butter Thing will widen its impact through expanding support in the East Midlands, South Yorkshire and the North West to ensure communities in some of the most deprived locations have access to quality and sustainable food and support services.
Meanwhile, applications for the next round of its Helping Everyone Eat Better Community grants, which have so far received £338k of funding, will open on 9 December. The grants offer funds to local charities, nominated by each individual store, that tackle food poverty.
Ruth Cranston, Director of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability at Sainsbury’s, said:
“With more challenging months ahead, support for those facing food poverty has never been more critical. We know how difficult the rising cost of living is for so many communities across the country which is why we’ve launched our new community programme Nourish the Nation, to help ensure that people have access to the food they need right now, whilst also helping to prevent those who are most at risk from facing food insecurity in the future.
“We are dedicated to supporting the communities we serve and through our large scale work with longstanding partners Comic Relief and FareShare, whilst supporting local projects with Feeding Britain and The Bread and Butter Thing, we hope we can go some way in providing relief to vulnerable communities up and down the country over the coming months and beyond.”
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.