Morrisons pledges further £5m to keep food banks stocked up

Morrisons Community Champions are working with local food banks to help ensure their shelves are restocked

Last year, the Bradford-based grocer led the charge to restock Britain's food banks, which found themselves struggling with unprecedented demand for their services.

Through Morrisons network of Community Champions, £10m of stock was delivered direct to food banks across the UK.

As the UK’s largest fresh food maker, Morrisons ran its bakery, egg and fruit & vegetable packing site for an extra hour every day to make, prepare and pack food required to restock the food banks. Over two million eggs and more than 300,000 loaves of bread were distributed through Morrisons own manufacturing sites.

Morrisons also focused on the essential products food banks were calling out. It supplied a million packets of pasta, 1.5 million litres of long life milk and over 800,000 tins of beans to those in need.

Other treats to help bring joy to families included a million Easter Eggs and 50,000 packs of McVities Victoria Biscuits through a buy one, donate one campaign in November.

Food was then distributed locally through Morrisons network of community champions, who work closely with food banks on the ground to ensure they’re getting the vital stock that they need.

The firm said food banks are playing a vital role during the pandemic for many of the most vulnerable people in communities, with research by the Trussell Trust forecasting a 61 per cent increase in food parcels needed across its UK network this winter. Six emergency food parcels are given out every minute.

The £5m donation by Morrisons will help distribute food to those most in need this year.

Morrisons chief executive, David Potts, said: “As food banks continue to face the extremely challenging times they find themselves in, it is only right that we continue to play our full part at Morrisons in feeding the nation.

"As a business, our priority remains to be kind and support those in society who find themselves struggling through this very difficult time; all of us working together means no-one need be left behind".

Morrisons' customers have also played their part throughout the pandemic, contributing over £180,000 to the Trussell Trust through Morrisons.com and donating hundreds of thousands of products in store through the Morrisons Pick Up Packs.

This is a scheme where customers can select a small paper bag filled with a number of items needed specifically by their local food bank labelled with a price at the front of the store. They then pay for the items and drop off the bag on their way out of the store.