A supermarket chain has donated around 22,705 meals in customer donations and surplus food to Somerset charities – and over six million across the UK.
Lidl, which has a store in Burnham-On-Sea plus others in Taunton and Bridgwater, donates meals to communities from customer donations and surplus items.
Since the company introduced its Good to Give trustmark seven months ago, it has seen in-store customer donations for local charities rise by around 25 per cent.
This is the equivalent of over 250,000 additional meals across the UK between June and December 2022.
Lidl now plans to expand Good to Give to 10 hygiene products after its research found that 72 per cent of charities need more toiletries to support communities through the cost-of-living crisis.
Shoppers will be able to spot the Good to Give trustmark on price tickets for 10 essential sanitary and personal care items, including tampons, toothpaste and nappies, from March 16th.
These items can be dropped at existing donation points located past the checkouts in all Lidl stores and will be collected by charity volunteers who already come to pick up food donations weekly.
Mark Newbold, senior CSR manager at Lidl GB, said: “With the cost of living crisis continuing to put pressure on local communities, we want to go beyond our commitment to making good food accessible to everyone by looking at other support we can provide.”
“Hygiene poverty is the daily reality for over 3.2 million adults across the country, and our charity partners working day in day out with those in need have told us that the problem is only growing. We hope that by providing grants and encouraging our customers to once again donate a little differently, we can get more local charities more of these basic yet vital products.”
Lidl is also providing £50,000 worth of grants for local organisations working to tackle hygiene poverty in their communities, within its network coordinated by Neighbourly.
The Burnham-On-Sea Lidl store underwent a refurbishment in 2021.
