Tesco and Sainsbury’s launch initiatives to tackle food poverty during school summer holidays

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Someone putting food into a Tesco food donation station / Credit: Tesco

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The charity says it expects to see a similar demand this summer, or potentially even higher.

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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