A community group which supports local vulnerable families and individuals in Dorchester and the surrounding area is being aided in its vital work thanks to food donations from Tesco.
Over the past three years the Food Share community group from Dorchester Community Church have been sharing food parcels to local families and individuals in need made from locally grown produce and surplus food donations from Tesco through the supermarket’s Community Food Connection scheme run in conjunction with FareShare.
Due to Covid-19, the group has seen the need for their food parcels increase massively. Previously there were 50 children amongst the families they were donating to and this has risen to 160. The group has increased their donations from one day a week to six days a week to try and help the local community.
Liz Meech, from the organisation, said: “We want to give a heartfelt ‘Thank You’ to all of the Tesco staff who have gone above and beyond the call of duty in recent weeks. Those at the Dorchester store did all they could to help us with donations during the panic-buying stage and since then we have received some wonderful contributions. Every time we receive food that can be added to our parcels, it enables us to spread our finite funding over a longer period and to maintain our increased delivery for the foreseeable future.”
Food Share in Dorchester is just one of thousands of food banks, charities and community groups across the UK being supported in their work amid the Covid-19 crisis thanks to donations from the supermarket. In addition to its usual supplies of surplus food to charities and community groups Tesco is providing an additional £15m of food to support charities supplied by FareShare and foodbanks that are part of the Trussell Trust’s network.
Already 122 trucks full of Tesco food donations have been delivered to FareShare and Trussell Trust, with 83 tonnes of food being delivered to FareShare South West to support 165 charities with 196,433 meals-worth of food, and enough long-life food to provide almost 1,000 meals for people in crisis being supplied to local Trussell Trust food banks each week.
Phoebe Ruxton, Fundraising and Communications Manager at FareShare South West, told KeeP 106 the additional donations from Tesco were making a huge difference to charities and community groups which receive supplies from them.
Phoebe said: “We are immensely thankful to Tesco for their continued support during the coronavirus pandemic. Many of the frontline charities we work with continue to provide essential support within their communities, and the additional donations from Tesco will help us to keep up a steady supply of food to them during this difficult time.”
The £15m of additional food donated by Tesco is part of a £30m package of support from the supermarket to aid charities and voluntary groups in their response to the crisis. It also includes a £1m cash donation to the Trussell Trust and FareShare to support their running costs, a £2m donation to the British Red Cross and a £2m pot from its Bags of Help community donation scheme to support local charities and community groups supporting vulnerable people with £500 grants
“In every part of the UK there are charities and community groups doing amazing work to feed people during the pandemic, and we are glad that we have been able to support them in helping so many vulnerable people,” said Tesco’s Head of Community, Claire De Silva.
