Leeds-based Arla Foods helping NHS heroes and vulnerable families

Arla Foods, which has its head office and national distribution centre in South Leeds, will also be providing food vouchers for vulnerable families across the country through partnerships with food charities FareShare, Food4Heroes, and Magic Breakfast.

Arla’s products will provide enough dairy for four million slices of Lurpak buttery toast and 1.4 million slices of pizza thanks to Arla Pro mozzarella.

Working with Magic Breakfast, a national charity that gives healthy breakfasts for vulnerable children, Arla will provide enough Arla Cravendale milk for 4.8 million bowls of cereals over the next 12 weeks.

Parent company to brands like Anchor, Cravendale and Lurpak, Arla has already committed over 35 per cent of its milk produced at its site in Settle, North Yorkshire, to the Government’s care packages for those needed to be shielded.

Arla - the UK's biggest farmer-owned dairy co-operative - will expand its partnership with FareShare whilst also supporting the charity Food4Heroes, supplying products to those most in need and NHS workers.

These donations have contributed to the production of 27,000 meals by Food4Heroes to the NHS every week.

Jonathan Dixon, vice president of Foodservice for Arla Foods UK, said: “The challenges of coronavirus are hitting the dairy industry hard with a surplus of milk now being produced on farms across the country.

"To ensure Arla milk isn’t wasted, where there are temporarily less foodservice outlets to sell dairy products into, we are redistributing them to where they are needed most; to those being shielded, those on the front line at our hospitals, and the children who are in need of nutritious products to help stay healthy at this time.”

“Whilst we are delighted to be able to provide this support in these difficult times, we do so knowing that there are many dairy farmers being severely impacted by the loss of business from foodservice companies.

"We hope that those who can afford to do so, continue to support Britain’s farming communities at this time by buying delicious dairy for their home cooked meals.”

Alex Cunningham, chief executive officer of Magic Breakfast, said: "We have been receiving many messages of thanks from schools in response to us telling them that their most vulnerable families can receive vouchers for milk for their children's breakfasts during lockdown.

" We are incredibly grateful to Arla for stepping in to provide this essential service to children at risk of hunger at this most challenging of times.”

Michael Shields, commercial manager at FareShare, said: “A huge thank you to Arla for their generous donation of UHT milk, cheese, yogurts and butter to support our charities and community groups in this time of crisis.

"Over the last month we've seen almost 500 new charities sign up to receive food from FareShare so our need has never been greater. Arla’s donation has been essential in enabling us to continue tackling hunger across the UK.”

Amanda Guest and John Brownhill Founders of Food 4 Heroes “We are so very grateful for the generous donations of milk, cheese and yogurts from Arla Foods, which means we can continue to provide daily meals to the frontline NHS Staff in Yorkshire Hospitals.

"Thanks for the generosity of Arla and other local providers we are now able to serve 19 Hospitals nationally, and over 27,000 meals to NHS Heroes every week.”