Doncaster’s elderly and foodbanks benefit from Lidl’s 75,000 meal donations

Lidl GB has redistributed more than 30 tonnes of surplus food from its stores across Yorkshire, which equates to 75,621 meals donated to good causes over the past 12 months.
Lidl storeLidl store
Lidl store

The discounter’s food surplus redistribution scheme, in place in stores across the region since the end of March last year, has supported 69 community projects, including Food Aware in Doncaster.

The milestone follows the completion of a national rollout of Lidl’s food redistribution programme ‘Feed it Back’, in partnership with Neighbourly. The giving platform directly connects Lidl stores with local charities, food banks, community cafes and soup kitchens, enabling them to collect quality food surplus from the supermarket, and put it to good use.

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Since the start of the initiative in January 2017, Lidl stores across Great Britain have helped to provide over 3.2 million meals for those in need through organisations such as Food Aware in Doncaster, which helps community projects including food banks and charities supporting the elderly.

Lidl’s Feed It Back initiative represents the company’s ongoing efforts to reduce food waste across its supply chain, and forms part of the supermarket’s ambitious goal of cutting food waste from stores by 25% per store by 2020.

Mark Newbold, CSR Manager, Lidl GB, said: “We’re seeing just how impactful our Feed it Back network is in connecting local communities with our stores and helping to build strong relationships. Through this network it’s great to know that we’re making the most of our surplus food by helping organisations such as Food Aware. We are extremely proud of our store teams’ efforts to date throughout Yorkshire and look forward to continuing to build these partnerships across the country.”

Sean Gibbons, Managing Director, Food AWARE CIC, said "We have been working with the team at our local Lidl store in Mexborough, South Yorkshire for the last year diverting tonnes of potential food waste and redistributing it to local community projects. Our team collects surplus food from the store several times per week, delivering it to local charities and community groups such as B:Friend, Smile project, and local food banks.”

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