Two of the UK’s biggest supermarkets have launched initiatives aimed at tackling food poverty while schools are out for summer.
With the final school term nearing an end now, and six weeks of freedom edging closer and closer for millions of children nationwide, Tesco and Sainsbury’s are both looking to address the concerning rise in the number of young people going hungry while not in the classroom.
Ahead of the six-week holidays, the two supermarket chains have each announced a number of measures they will be taking to help families struggling with costs this summer.
Tesco says it will be donating £1 million to food poverty organisations FareShare and the Trussell Trust this summer, and will also expand its pre-packed customer donation bags – which typically cost between £2 and £3, are pre-filled with healthy and nutritious long-life items, and can be picked up in store and paid for at the checkout – to all of its large stores across the UK.
Some kids may need a little extra help over the school holidays. We are making a £1m Tesco Stronger Starts donation to @fareshareuk and @trusselltrust to support families who need it. If you want to help too, pick up a pre-filled food donation bag in store this summer. #Tescopic.twitter.com/zSRwMceboQ
The donated food is passed to FareShare and the Trussell Trust, which then distributes it to charities and foodbanks to help families who need it most.
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In addition to the donation bags, for one week in July and another in August, Tesco customers will also have the chance to round up their bill at the checkout, either in store or online, to the nearest pound as a way of donating to the two organisations.
Tesco and Sainsbury’s have launched initiatives to tackle food poverty during the school summer holidays / Credit: Sainsbury’s
Over at Sainsbury’s, the supermarket has partnered with charity Comic Relief in a commitment to donate more than £2.5 million to help families with access to nutritious food by providing over one million meals in the school holidays.
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The retailer and charity are also working together to fund several food poverty organisations, as well as help launch five new food club hubs – which will run all year round, and provide long-term solutions to help improve families’ access to food, whether during term time or not.
We’re providing over one million meals to children facing food poverty in the school holidays, by donating over £2.5 million to @comicrelief. Until 23rd July, we’re donating 25p for every purchase of selected fruit and veg and until 30thJuly £100k will be donated from the… pic.twitter.com/nu3ICjV0us
Sainsbury’s is also donating 25p to Comic Relief for every purchase of selected fruit and veg until 29 July, and donating £100,000 from the proceeds of all Dolmio product sales until 30 July.
The Trussell Trust revealed that nearly two-thirds of all its support last year was provided to families with children, and just last summer alone, the charity’s food banks supported 430,000 people with emergency food, and 160,000 of those were children.
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The charity says it expects to see a similar demand this summer, or potentially even higher.
Also, kids can eat for free with any paying adult at all in-store cafes nationwide for the duration of the six-week break at both of the supermarkets.
Featured Image – Tesco
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New data estimates that 7.3m Oasis fans are set to miss out on 2027 tour tickets
Emily Sergeant
New data has revealed that as many as 7.3 million Oasis fans could be set to miss out on tickets to the band’s 2027 tour.
In case you need bringing up to speed a little, it was announced earlier this week that, following the unprecedented success of the reunion tour, Oasis Live ’25, last year, including five nostalgia-drenched gigs at Manchester’s Heaton Park, Oasis would be hitting the road once again in 2027, and this time around, they’re going BIG.
We’re talking 11 nights at the Etihad Stadium and a return to the iconic grounds of Knebworth for four special shows there too, kind of ‘big’.
The iconic Manchester band will also be taking to a range of other world-famous stages across the globe, including five nights at Glasgow’s Celtic Park, and major cities like Barcelona, Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, and Las Vegas.
But despite the elevated number of dates the Gallaghers and co will be performing, some new data has unfortunately revealed that millions of fans may still not be lucky enough to snag a ticket.
The ticketing system for Oasis Live ’27 is not what it was for the last tour, nor will it be similar to many other tours of a similar scale in the past either, as this time, the band and their promotors are taking necessary measures to ensure ‘genuine fans’ get their hands on the tickets and that dynamic pricing doesn’t creep in.
Instead of going into detail on that now though, you can read our full guide on how to get tickets for the Manchester and Knebworth shows here.
Experts at online ticketing platform TicketSource have analysed the scale of demand for Oasis tickets by comparing the 10 million fans worldwide who queued for the initial release of 1.4 million tickets for their 2025 tour, with the newly announced 2027 tour dates and stadium capacities.
With an estimated 2.67 million tickets available across 38 dates and 11 locations between 21 May and 19 September 2027, Oasis could still face huge demand from fans hoping to see them live.
But research reveals the band would need to play 112 Wembley-sized shows to accommodate everyone who tried to get a ticket in 2025.
The 2027 tour would accommodate just 26.7% of those who tried to get tickets last time, meaning almost three-quarters (73%) of them could miss out, leaving a shortfall of more than 7.3 million fans.
Fingers crossed you’re among the lucky lot that secure tickets, though.
Featured Image – Joshua Halling (Press Image – Supplied)
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Former GMP officer jailed after being found guilty of several online child sex offences
Emily Sergeant
A former police officer from Salford has been sentenced after being found guilty of a string of online child sex offences.
Following a trial back in July, 35-year-old Michael Aspinall was sentenced at Preston Crown Court earlier this week (Monday 14 September) after being found guilty of three counts of attempting sexual communication with a child.
It comes after Aspinall – who was employed by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) at the time of the offences – was arrested in October 2024 by detectives from the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit (NWROCU), and was immediately suspended from duty following his arrest.
The investigation began after evidence was obtained that Aspinall had been communicating online with individuals that he believed to be children, but he was in fact communicating with a police officer.
Following this series of interactions, he was charged with various offences.
In addition to his eight-month sentence – which has been suspended for two years – Aspinall will also be placed on the sex offender’s register for 10 years, subject to a five-year serious crime prevention order, and have undertake 20 days of rehabilitation, GMP has confirmed.
He has additionally been added to the College of Policing’s barred list.
An application to request forfeiture of Aspinall’s police pension has also been made to the Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester.
“Aspinall’s offending was clearly unacceptable for any right-minded member of society and particularly inappropriate for a serving police officer,” commented Detective Chief Inspector Gareth Humphreys, from GMP’s Professional Standards Directorate.
“His actions put the whole police service under scrutiny, but thanks to the hard work and diligence of undercover officers, he was arrested, found guilty, and has now received his punishment.”
DCI Humphreys concluded: “[Aspinall’s] actions take away from the hard work of the men and women who work so hard for their communities every day, and it is only right that anyone committing these sort of offences are rooted out.”
Emily Sergeant -
18th July 2024 
