50,000 meals donated by generous shoppers

Deputy Mayor of Mid & East Antrim Borough Council, Cllr Cheryl Johnston, pictured supporting the Tesco Foodbank along with Cllr Timothy Gaston and Tesco staff, Ronny McFaul (Community Champion), Janice Colgan (Foodbank Co-ordinator), Paul Dowey (Grocery Line Manager) and Amy Johnston, (Fresh Lead Manager).

Across the UK a total of three million meals worth of food has been donated to charities FareShare and The Trussell Trust thanks to the Food Collection that ran in Tesco stores until December 2.

Supermarket shoppers were asked to donate long-life items to help people in need as part of their usual shop, with Tesco topping up the value of the customer donations by 20 per cent.

Thanks to customers’ generosity and the Tesco top-up this year’s collection has seen over three million meals worth of food donated to help people in need.

Across County Antrim, almost 50,000 meals were donated by generous customers at local Tesco stores.

It brings the overall total donated by Tesco shoppers since the scheme began in 2012 to more than 49 million meals.

The food donated to foodbanks in The Trussell Trust’s network is given in emergency food parcels to people referred because they cannot afford to feed themselves and their families.

Food donated to FareShare is distributed to charities and community groups who use it to provide meals for vulnerable groups.

Tony McElroy, Tesco’s NI Head of Communications, said: “Every year we are taken aback by the generosity of customers who give to the Food Collection in our stores across the UK.

“We know that this annual collection makes a real difference in Northern Ireland and we would like to thank everyone who has donated, volunteered or helped with the food collection in store.”