Asda to invest £20m to help millions in food poverty

Asda is to invest £20m in a partnership with food charities to help one million people out of food poverty over the next three years.

The grocer has teamed up with FareShare, which operate a distribution network for food donations, and The Trussell Trust, the UK’s biggest operator of foodbanks to deliver the scheme.

Asda’s investment will allow the two charities to develop their infrastructure and offer better services to those in need.

The retailer said that currently, both charities struggle to transport and store fresh food, which needs to be chilled, and means those using food banks are reliant on mainly tinned and packet foods. The investment will also fund support services in food banks, such as debt counselling and job advice.

Asda has also committed to making sure all of its shops are able to donate surplus food to food banks by 2020.

The partnership will enable FareShare and The Trussell Trust to provide an additional 24 million meals every year, give 500,000 more people access to fresh food in the UK and help one million people get themselves out of food poverty over the next three years.

Andy Murray, Asda’s chief customer officer, said: “Right now, in the UK 8.4 million people are struggling to afford to eat. One in 10 people in the UK are missing meals to pay their bills – and one in four of those are children. And yet, four million tonnes of perfectly decent food is wasted each year in the UK. We simply cannot – and will not – accept food being wasted whilst people in our communities go hungry. We’ve listened to our customers and want to take on their challenge to fight hunger and create change.”

Lindsay Boswell, chief executive of FareShare UK, said: “Based on my 25 years of senior experience in the voluntary sector, I believe that Asda’s investment in tackling hunger and food waste in support of front line charities has the potential to create such a multiplier effect that it could well be the largest single act of support since the creation of the National Lottery or the introduction of Gift Aid.”

Mark Ward, interim CEO at The Trussell Trust, added: “The scale and nature of this funding is unprecedented. Asda’s investment means they can expand their reach and develop new projects bringing very real, tangible benefits to local communities and to anyone struggling with food insecurity in a way that simply has not been possible before.”