Tesco stores in Belfast to hold extra summer Food Collection for children and families

Tesco is to hold an extra UK-wide Food Collection in its Belfast stores to support children and families this summer.

During the collection, which will take place in large Tesco stores from July 15 to 17 and in Express stores from July 12 to August 28, customers will be urged to donate long-life food to the Trussell Trust and FareShare to help them in their vital work to support families in communities across the UK. Tesco will once again be topping up all customer donations with a 20% cash donation to the two charities.

Tesco UK & Northern Ireland CEO Jason Tarry said: “Both the Trussell Trust and FareShare face extra demands during the summer, when children who would normally enjoy a healthy meal in school may miss out. That is why we have decided to hold this extra collection to help ensure that children across the UK can enjoy a happier and healthier summer without missing out on meals.”

Charities FareShare and the Trussell Trust have welcomed the announcement of the extra collection.

Lindsay Boswell, Chief Executive at FareShare, said: “At FareShare, the demand for food from the communities we serve remains very high and, with the combination of the pandemic and many families struggling to afford to eat during the school holidays when free school meals are not available, we anticipate this will continue to be the case for many months. We are incredibly grateful to Tesco for running this additional summer food collection, which will ensure that we can continue supporting the thousands of charities feeding the most vulnerable children and families across the UK.”

Emma Revie, Chief Executive of the Trussell Trust, added: “No one should face the indignity of needing emergency food. Yet in the last year, food banks in our network provided record numbers of emergency food parcels to people struggling to afford the essentials. This is not right but we know we can build a better future. Thanks to the incredible ongoing generosity of Tesco, we are thrilled that customers will be able to support food banks during the Summer Food Collection. Every donation makes such a difference and helps food banks in our network provide the best possible emergency support while we work together towards building a hunger free future.”

Additional details of the collection and how shoppers can support it will be released in the coming weeks. The summer collection is in addition to the annual pre-Christmas Tesco Food Collection.