Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Sainsbury’s has pledged a donation of nearly 10,000 turkeys along with other fruit and vegetables to offer a festive dinner to those in need over the week of Christmas.
Taste the Difference and By Sainsbury’s turkeys and turkey crowns totalling 9,776 units are being donated in partnership with poultry supplier Faccenda. The equivalent in portion sizes is 100,000.
Earlier this month Sainsbury’s also pledged a year’s worth of fruit and vegetable supplies to charities through its fresh produce suppliers. Turkey donations alone will provide around 100,000 portions of meat over Christmas week.
Charity FareShare – which was co-founded by Sainsbury’s and homeless charity Crisis in 1994 and operated as a division of Crisis for 10 years – is adding Christmas food to its traditional year-round donations to charities across the country in the run up to the festive season.
Sainsbury’s fresh produce business unit director Charlotte Rhodes said: “I’m delighted that we’re able to help those in need this Christmas with our donation of turkeys. It adds to our extensive donations of fresh fruit and vegetables and other goods all year round. Together with Fareshare, we’re committed to getting food to those who need it most.”
FareShare director of food Mark Varney said: “This is a really welcome addition at this time of year that we can pass onto our charity members across the UK who help some of the most vulnerable and socially excluded people in need. We have the capacity and space to handle large volumes of surplus food and to redistribute it to great and wide effect. We would urge other suppliers and food industry companies that have surplus food, particularly turkeys, to get in touch.”
Fareshare supports 1,711 local charities and community projects across the UK including breakfast and afterschool clubs for vulnerable children, lunch clubs for elderly people living in isolation, homeless hostels, drop in centres for people recovering from addictions and charities helping people with mental health issues, physical disabilities and health related issues. Through its charity members, Fareshare is helping to feed over 82,000 people every day, redistributing more than 6,400 tonnes of food a year, which helps to provide around 13.2 million meals a year.
