Welsh shoppers urged to donate to Tesco Food Collection.

Leading charities are urging Welsh shoppers to donate food at their local Tesco to help support children and families across the UK this summer.

From July 15 to 17 Tesco is holding a summer Food Collection in aid of FareShare and the Trussell Trust at all of its large stores across the nation and the wider UK.

Shoppers are being urged to donate a variety of long-life foodstuffs to help FareShare supply thousands of community groups such as children’s holiday clubs and food pantries and help the Trussell Trust’s network of food banks provide emergency parcels to families in crisis.

Tesco will give an extra little help in the form of a 20% top up to the value of customer donations to assist the two charities in their vital work.

Sarah Germain, Manager at FareShare Cymru, said every donation made would make a real difference.

“There are so many fantastic community groups across Wales that work hard to bring children together during the holidays,” she said. “The items we receive from the Tesco Food Collection will help us to support a huge range of organisations working with children and families, from school holiday activity clubs and playgroups to breakfast and after school clubs.

“Your donations will make such a big difference to thousands of children at risk of going hungry this summer, so if you’re able to purchase just one item in your local Tesco store we would be so thankful.”

Food banks in the Trussell Trust’s network gave almost a million food parcels to support children last year.

“No one in Wales should face the indignity of needing emergency food,” said Susan Lloyd-Selby, the Trussell Trust’s network lead for Wales. “Yet our network of food banks in Wales gave out 145,828 emergency food parcels in the last year. More than 54,000 of these went to children – that’s one parcel every 10 minutes on average. This isn’t right.

“Food banks across Wales do all they can to help families facing extra financial pressures during the summer holidays. But your support by donating during the Tesco Summer Food Collection this July will be vital in helping food banks provide the best possible support to families in crisis today, while working towards a hunger free future.”

“Thank you for your generosity – together we can make a difference.”

Shoppers will be greeted in store with a shopping list giving details of the products that are most-needed by their local food bank or FareShare regional centre, and are being encouraged to pick up an item as they shop to drop in special donation trollies on the way out of the store.

In addition to the collection in large stores, Tesco Express stores will be collecting donations throughout the summer (from July 12 to August 28).

Customers who want to support FareShare and the Trussell Trust but are unable to shop in store are being encouraged to donate their Tesco Clubcard vouchers to them via the Tesco Clubcard website.