Tesco unveils a sweet way to help charities fighting hunger this Christmas

Tesco is proud to announce that it is giving a little extra help to two leading charities that are fighting hunger this Christmas, with a 10p donation from each gingerbread product sold at Tesco.

The donation, across a wide range of tasty gingerbread products, will help Tesco’s long-standing charity partners Trussell and FareShare support people in communities across the UK. 

Trussell works with the UK’s biggest community of foodbanks, helping people in hardship with food when they need it most, while FareShare redistributes surplus food to support more than 8,000 local charities and community groups.

With gingerbread at the centre of Tesco’s Christmas campaign this year, Tesco Chief Commercial Officer Ashwin Prasad said making a donation for each gingerbread product sold provided the ideal opportunity to help feed the Christmas spirit.

“Gingerbread is a great tradition of Christmas for many, as is helping others,” he said. “By picking up one of the delicious gingerbread products that we we stock, and maybe even trying your hand at building a gingerbread house this Christmas, Tesco customers will be helping to support the vital work of our friends at Trussell and FareShare in fighting hunger.”

Kris Gibbon-Walsh, CEO at FareShare, said the donations would make a real difference. "We are really incredibly grateful to Tesco for a brilliant festive fundraising opportunity for FareShare,” he said. “All funds raised through the purchase of gingerbread items at Tesco will help us to get good food to charities and community groups across the UK providing meals and bringing people together this winter."

Sophie Carre, Trussell's Director of Public Engagement added: “We are obviously extremely grateful to Tesco for donating 10p to Trussell from the sale of gingerbread products this Christmas. Whether you buy a kit to build a gingerbread house with your family or treat yourself to a pack of festive biscuits, every purchase made will help to support our work to end hunger in the UK. Food banks are facing an extremely tough winter but, thanks to the generosity of Tesco and its customers, they will be able to be there for anyone facing hardship in their community.”

In total 18 different types of gingerbread will trigger a donation, with Tesco’s own gingerbread products and those from leading and regional brands falling under the scheme, too. Donations will be made on products purchased from today, November 13, right through to Christmas Day and donations will be split equally between the two recipient charities.

This year Tesco’s Christmas campaign tells the heartwarming and poignant story of a young man called Gary’s journey to rekindle a cherished tradition of building a gingerbread house; something he used to do with his grandmother. 

Viewers see Gary and his grandfather come together to re-live the tradition and nostalgic comfort of the project, and their home-made biscuit build takes pride of place on the Christmas table. The advert is set to the soundtrack of On Melancholy Hill by Gorillaz and first aired during the Great British Bake Off on November 12. It can be seen in cinemas until December 23 or online here: Helping #FeedYourChristmasSpirit

FACTFILE:-

Tesco Stores Limited will donate 10p through the sale of gingerbread products between 13/11/24 and 25/12/24 either in-store or online. The total donations raised will be split equally between FareShare, a registered charity in England and Wales (1100051) and Scotland (SC052672) and Trussell, the operating name of The Trussell Trust, a registered charity in England & Wales (1110522) and Scotland (SC044246) to help provide access to food for people in the community that need our help. Tesco Stores Limited will make available the final total of donations shortly after the Christmas period.

Products included Are:-

Tesco gingerbread biscuit

Tesco 5 gingerbread men kit 199g

Tesco 30 mini gingerbread men 300g

Tesco create your own gingerbread house 613g

Tesco seasonal gingerbread biscuit

Tesco 10 mini gingerbread men

Tesco gingerbread mix 225g

Kopernik iced gingerbread 153g

Organix 15 gingerbread men 135g

Organix mini gingerbread men biscuits 5x20g

Tesco free from gingerbread men 154g

McVitie’s mini gingerbread men 6x19g

Tesco mini gingerbread men 100g

Furniss Cornish gingerbread with dark choc 200g

Oreo gingerbread 154g

Tesco gingerbread Christmas tree kit

Tesco gingerbread dough 350g

Tesco mini gingerbread village

Yeah, I feel certain that The That's Christmas team will be making our way to our nearest Tesco (lucky for us it's a big one with a massive baked goods section!) to stock up on ginger bread products. 

It's actually a bit of a tradition of ours to build our own gingerbread houses and it looks likely that Tesco gingerbread Christmas tree kits could be the way we'll be going this Christmas! 

Why don't you join us, if you can and build your own gingerbread houses and Christmas trees? Come on! It'll be a lot of fun.

You can email you entries to afj_UK@yahoo.com

Tesco customers donate 2 million meals to support charities at Winter Food Collection

Generous Tesco customers made millions of food donations at the Tesco Winter Food Collection - providing much-needed support for FareShare and the Trussell Trust.

An incredible 2 million meals’ worth of long-life food items were donated at the collection between 27th November to 2nd December in all of the retailer’s large and convenience stores.

Donations to the Trussell Trust help food banks to provide emergency food parcels to people who cannot afford the essentials, while donations to FareShare support thousands of frontline local charities in communities across the country. 

This year will see both charities face their busiest winter yet as more people turn to them for support. The Trussell Trust is expecting to distribute one food parcel every eight seconds over the next three months and the charity has reported that, alarmingly, 320,000 people needed to access a food bank for the first time between April and September – the most ever for this period.

Meanwhile, FareShare has over 1,500 frontline charities on its waiting list seeking food to help them provide meals for people facing hunger this winter.

Tesco CEO Ken Murphy said: “The generosity of our customers is truly amazing. At a time when people are facing financial strain, they still went out of their way to support our charity partners in stores across the UK. 

“From a single carton of long-life milk to a whole trolley of items, every customer who donated helped us to make this one of the most successful Winter Food Collections ever.”

In addition to the donations of food, the pre-Christmas Winter Food Collection saw customers donate more than £300,000 to the charities by rounding up their bills at the till and donating through a link from Tesco’s online groceries website.

Tesco also provides its unsold food to FareShare and altogether Tesco and its customers have given the equivalent of more than 39 million meals to both charities in the past year.

George Wright, Chief Executive at FareShare, said: “With so many people struggling to afford basic essentials this winter, it’s really uplifting to see that Tesco customers have donated so much food to help people facing hunger in the community. Not only did they donate food, but many of them also donated their time by volunteering in store to help us collect much needed items this year too.

“We are immensely grateful to Tesco and its customers for the invaluable support we have received over the last 11 years and for donating more than any other food partner in our history. Thank you to everyone that donated food, money or time this year – your generosity will ensure we can continue getting vital food to the people that need it most this Christmas.”

Emma Revie, CEO of the Trussell Trust: "People’s generosity never fails to amaze me and it is wonderful to see that once again communities and Tesco stores across the UK have come together to support their local food banks and ensure that they can be there for everyone who needs them this winter.

“Everyone should have enough money to afford the essentials and when food banks in our network are expecting to provide a food parcel every eight seconds between December and February, it’s clear that something is wrong. That is why we continue our long-term work to achieve a future where no one needs to access emergency food and, while we do that, every item that is donated will make a real difference to addressing the urgent levels of need this winter.”

With both charities continuing to need support, Tesco shoppers can continue to donate food at permanent collection points at every Tesco store in the UK or make a donation after their online shop. You can also donate at https://fareshare.donr.com/tesco until February 2024.