Supermarket chain Morrisons is donating £100,000 of food from stores nationwide to help tackle holiday hunger across the UK as the cost of living continues to affect families. Each of its 497 stores and 25 manufacturing and logistic sites will be donating nutritious food to local holiday clubs being held across the country.
Morrisons Community Champions are also working closely with local community groups to provide foods that are most in need from children including fresh fruit, cereal, sandwiches, snacks and drinks as part of the Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF), that was set up by the government.
The programme, backed by around £200 million every year to 2024, aims to provide healthy food and enriching activities to children and young people, with free places available for those on free school meals. Rebecca Singleton, customer and community director at Morrisons, said: “Supporting local communities is incredibly important to us and we know that the summer holidays can be a difficult time for families concerned about holiday hunger.
“Schools, community groups and HAF aim to support children with healthy food at activity clubs during the school holidays, that is why we’re donating £100,000 worth of nutritious food to support the needs of local clubs across the country to help prevent families from experiencing holiday hunger this summer.”
To help those in need, Morrisons already gives surplus food to local causes, such as food banks through its unsold food programme. In addition to that, its Food Bank ‘Pick Up Pack’ scheme in store, allows customers to purchase a bag filled with a mix of food products, which are distributed to local food banks and community organisations by in-store Community Champions supporting individuals and families.
Morrisons manufacturing sites and distribution centres also work with a range of organisations including Fareshare, Company Shop and The Bread and Butter Thing, to redistribute surplus food throughout their communities. The Holiday Activities and Food programme supported over 600,000 children last summer, and is proven to benefit children’s wellbeing, behaviour, physical activity and social skills.
