Tag: food and drink

Feeding the nation our daily bread

Feeding the nation is an essential part of us getting through the current crisis, so the trade union Usdaw and trade association Scottish Bakers have combined to acknowledge and welcome the crucial work bakers are doing to literally put our daily bread, savoury snacks and sweet treats on the table in extremely difficult circumstances.

Dave Gill, Usdaw National Officer, says: “Usdaw members throughout the food supply chain are doing essential work to keep us all fed. From manufacturing to distribution to retail, the country could not continue in these trying times without them.

“Staff are of course deeply concerned about their own personal safety, at a time when everyone who can has been instructed to stay at home. We are working with employers to promote necessary safety standards in essential workplaces, helping to ensure social distancing and hygiene standards are met.

“Usdaw continues support and advise our members through this difficult period and stands ready to resolve any issues of concern with their employer.”

Alasdair Smith – Scottish Bakers Chief Executive says: “Across the country our members are still baking and serving their communities with fresh baked goods. Many of our bakers have strong community links too and are going further with deliveries to vulnerable groups and those in self-isolation and we applaud them for their dedication.

“Throughout the current health crisis Scottish Bakers has worked with members to ensure they fully understand the demands of safe social distancing and so can continue to operate safely keeping their workforce and customers safe and well.”

Morrisons: Feeding the Nation update

Thank you to all our customers and Morrisons Key workers for your patience, consideration and support in the face of the Coronavirus challenge we are all facing right now.

I’d like to share with you some of the initiatives we’ve been working hard to deliver over this last week.

Till Screens

We’ve installed protective screens on all checkouts, in all stores. A huge achievement with great feedback from our customers and Key Workers.

Home Shopping

Our home shopping business is experiencing unprecedented high demand at the moment. We are working extremely hard to create as many delivery slots as we can. We have taken on an extra 3,000 Key Workers and are on track to increase capacity by 60% by the end of April.

And we’ve launched our Morrisons Food Box service which delivers 2 types of food box to the most vulnerable customers during self isolation.

Contactless Limit Increase

The Contactless card limit is being raised from £30 to £45 in all stores by Friday 3rd April. Please use contactless payments whenever you can as this will help reduce the need for physical contact between customers and our Key Workers.

Paying Our Suppliers

We know the increased demand on our smaller suppliers has been significant and to help them get through any difficulties caused by the spread of Coronavirus and ensure we play our part in working together, we have been paying our suppliers immediately since we first announced this in mid-March.

Join us and, together, we can help feed some of the most in need …

We’ve set up local food bank donation areas in all stores to help everybody play their part in Feeding The Nation. We’re running our manufacturing sites for an extra hour on top of the already longer production runs to help us jointly contribute £10 million by July. Supplies in our local food banks have been severely reduced in recent weeks and they need us now more than ever. If you can donate a grocery item, then please do.

CAMRA welcomes confirmation in law on pub deliveries and takeaways

The emergency Coronavirus (Scotland) Bill passed by the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday confirms that pubs can sell alcohol and food to take-away or for home delivery, where it is safe to do so. 

The legislation clarifies that pubs across the country can continue to sell alcohol for consumption off the premises, as well as take-away or home delivery of food if this was previously provided on the premises.

Any pubs continuing to offer take-away or delivery services must adhere to the Scottish Government’s safe social distancing guidance, as well as complying with all other standard health and safety requirements.

This includes making sure that there is a distance of at least two metres between staff and any customers collecting items, and control of queues outside the premises consistent with social distancing advice.

CAMRA Director for Scotland Sarah Crawford said: “The fact that this emergency legislation puts it beyond doubt that pubs can sell alcohol for consumption off the premises, and offer food for takeaway or delivery where the pub previously offered food, will be welcome news for pubs who are still looking to offer services throughout the COVID-19 restriction. 

“This will need to be done safely and in line with strict social distancing measures, but it does mean that communities who want to continue to support their local can do so. This will be especially important in our rural communities, where the local pub may be the only accessible business in the area.

“CAMRA is continuing to call on the UK and Scottish Governments to make sure that pubs of all types and sizes receive the support they need to get through the coronavirus crisis, so they can keep paying staff and are able to re-open and thrive once this is over.”

I’ll drink to that …

Morrisons thanks staff with threefold increase in bonus for next 12 months

  • Full time colleagues will earn a bonus of £1,050 compared to around £350 average last year
  • The special bonus is the largest for frontline supermarket staff announced in recent weeks

Morrisons is recognising the huge effort by its colleagues who are helping to feed the nation during the coronavirus outbreak by increasing this year’s annual bonus payout threefold from last year.

Morrisons annual colleague bonus will become a ‘thank you’ bonus with the increase lasting for the next 12 months.

Because it will be a percentage of the entire year’s pay, frontline colleagues at Morrisons will see the largest special bonus of those announced over the last few weeks in the supermarket sector.

Morrisons colleagues have worked tirelessly to help meet demand and to thank them they will see these changes to the current bonus scheme:

  • All frontline colleagues will receive a 6% bonus on their earnings for the next 12 months rather than just the next 8-12 weeks
  • The changes represent a bonus payment of £1,050 for a full-time frontline colleague compared to the £351 that would have been paid last year
  • The bonus will be guaranteed in recognition of the effort made by very hard working colleagues
  • It will be paid quarterly so colleagues don’t have to wait until next year to be paid
  • The bonus will continue to be paid as a percentage of actual earnings as per previous years
  • Colleagues who are off sick or are self-isolating will remain eligible
  • Both permanent and temporary colleagues will be eligible in recognition of the thousands of new colleagues who have joined Morrisons in recent weeks.

Clare Grainger, Group People Director said: “Our highly valued colleagues have stood tall amidst the coronavirus pandemic, playing their full part in feeding the nation.

“We want to thank every single one of them for their continued hard work during these unprecedented times by paying a much higher guaranteed bonus for the whole year in recognition of their effort.”

Morrisons frontline salaried managers are also guaranteed to receive a bonus that will be twice their maximum yearly amount in a normal year, again guaranteed and paid quarterly.

The bonus overhaul is the latest change that Morrisons has put in place for its highly valued colleagues.

Previous measures include paying extremely vulnerable and high risk colleagues 12 weeks paid leave to self isolate as well as paying 12 weeks paid leave to colleagues who live with someone who is high risk and extremely vulnerable.

In store, perspex screens have been installed to protect colleagues and customers while paying for groceries at the checkouts and social distancing measures have been introduced.

#ItsMoreThanOurJob

Update from Sainsbury’s Chief Executive Mike Coupe

I’ve written to you regularly over the past few weeks as we adapt the way we work to keep our shelves full while keeping you and our colleagues safe.

We continue to make changes in line with government guidelines and in response to feedback from you and our colleagues.

I am writing today to tell you about measures we are taking to protect our customers and colleagues and to update you on our product availability and on how we continue to support our elderly and vulnerable customers.

Keeping our customers and colleagues safe

Keeping you and our colleagues safe is our number one priority. This week we have brought in further measures to help you keep a safe distance from other customers and from our colleagues when you are visiting our stores.

We have queuing systems in place outside stores and ask you to please queue at a safe distance of two metres apart. Please also try to keep a safe distance from other customers and from our colleagues when you are doing your shop. We have placed clear markings on shop floors to help you know what a safe distance is.

From today, we are asking everyone to please only send one adult per household to our shops.

This helps us keep people a safe distance apart and also helps to reduce queues to get into stores. Our store teams will be asking groups with more than one adult to choose one adult to shop and will ask other adults to wait. Children are of course welcome if they are not able to stay at home.

To help keep our colleagues safe while serving customers, we now have screens at most manned checkouts. In the next few days we will have finished installing the screens across all manned checkouts in every supermarket, convenience store and Argos collection point.

Feeding the nation

We have been working hard with our suppliers to improve our product availability. Most people are now just buying what they need for themselves and their families. This means we now often have stock on the shelves all day and at the end of the day.

People have been queuing to get into our stores when they open in the mornings, but customers are now finding they can shop at any time of the day and feel confident in finding most of what they need.

As stock continues to build, we have been reviewing whether we still need to limit the number of items people buy. I am pleased to tell you that we will start to remove limits from Sunday. Limits will remain in place on the most popular items which include UHT milk, pasta and tinned tomatoes.

We have removed limits from Easter eggs immediately as we know families often want to buy more than three and we have plenty of these in all stores and online.

Supporting elderly and vulnerable customers

We are continuing to prioritise elderly and vulnerable customers for online delivery slots and our customer Careline has helped 170,000 customers, who will now get priority access to online delivery. In total, we have offered priority booking to more than 450,000 elderly or vulnerable customers.

I apologise to customers who have been struggling to get through to our online team. The team is working at full capacity and we are doing our very best to get to people as quickly as possible.

We are expanding our groceries online service as much and as quickly as we can. Two weeks ago we had 370,000 online grocery slots available. By the end of next week we will have increased this to 600,000 across home delivery and click and collect and we will continue to add more capacity over the coming weeks.

Supporting our colleagues

Our colleagues really are doing a remarkable job. I have been into a number of stores over the past few days and have been struck by their dedication and their determination to do the best job for our customers. These are very uncertain times and our colleagues really are on the frontline.

We are doing everything we can to keep our colleagues safe and this includes supporting them if they need to self-isolate. Where colleagues are considered vulnerable, we are paying them in full for the recommended 12 weeks self-isolation, including colleagues who live with extremely vulnerable family members who the government has asked to shield for 12 weeks.

I am personally committed to ensuring the safety of our colleagues and we will continue to do the right thing to protect them throughout this time.

I have been delighted to see that customers have told us they think colleague friendliness is at an all-time high at the moment. I think this is real testament both to the hard work of our colleagues and also the fantastic recognition they are getting for the vital role they are playing throughout this crisis.

Thank you for treating our colleagues with the respect and kindness they deserve. They really are doing their best to serve our customers well in these challenging times.

Best wishes

Mike

Heart Research UK Healthy tip: Easy ways to get your 5-a-day!

Eating five portions of fruit and veg every day can help keep your heart healthy and reduce the risk of heart disease. As supermarket shelves are emptier than usual, Heart Research UK have some tips to help you achieve your 5-a-day during this challenging time.

What counts as a portion?

Eighty grams of fresh, frozen or tinned fruit and veg or 30g dried fruit count as one portion. For example, one fresh pear or banana, two small plums, or three heaped tablespoons of peas. Beans and pulses also count, but you should only count these once as they contain fewer nutrients compared to other fruit and veg. 150ml of fruit/vegetable juice or smoothie also counts, but you should limit these drinks to no more than one a day due to the sugars they contain.

Top up with lentils

Lentils are a versatile ingredient and a great source of fibre, which is good for heart health. Try replacing some of the meat in your bolognese sauce with a handful of lentils or try adding lentils to homemade soups.

Include tinned, frozen and dried fruit and veg in your meals

As the population is being encouraged to make fewer trips to the supermarket, you may find that you need to rely on the food in your store cupboard and freezer more than usual. Try adding dried or frozen fruit to your bowl of breakfast cereal in the morning and include a variety of frozen or tinned veg with your evening meals. Tinned fruit with yoghurt can also provide you with a healthy dessert.

Enjoy homemade soups for lunch

Homemade soups are an easy way to increase your veg intake. You can include a variety of tinned, fresh and frozen veg in soups. There are lots of healthy vegetable soup recipes available online, but here is one to get you started.

Easy-peasy pea soup.

  • 1 tbsp rapeseed oil or vegetable oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 400g frozen peas, defrosted
  • 500ml vegetable stock
  • Salt and pepper
  • Fresh mint, finely chopped (optional)

Heat the oil over a medium heat and stir in the chopped onion. Gently fry the onion until soft, but not browned. Add the peas and stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Puree the soup using a blender and add salt and pepper to taste. If you have fresh mint available, you can add this at the end.

Vulnerable people struggle to get essentials

Three-quarters of the population have experienced shortages of products when shopping in recent weeks, with vulnerable consumers among those struggling to get hold of essentials, new research from Which? has found.

In a survey of more than 2,000 members of the public on the impact of the coronavirus outbreak carried out between 20th-24th March, three-quarters (76%) reported experiencing shortages of products in supermarkets, shops or online.

A third (34%) said they could not find hand sanitisers while around a quarter could not find toilet rolls (27%) and rice and pasta (25%).

The coronavirus outbreak has also impacted shopping habits, with around a third (32%) saying they have shopped at independent and convenience stores more than usual.

While supermarkets have maintained there is plenty of food available to feed the nation, many stores have struggled to keep their shelves stocked around the clock to meet the sudden increase in demand, while online shopping delivery slots are booked up weeks in advance.

Major retailers have been seeking to address these issues by hiring thousands of extra staff, limiting purchases of some items and prioritising NHS workers and vulnerable customers at certain times, while the government has relaxed competition laws to allow supermarkets to work together on maintaining supplies of essential goods.

The government has also made plans to deliver weekly food parcels to more than a million people who have been identified as medically vulnerable.

Worryingly, in another survey of Which? members carried out in the same time period, thousands said they had experienced food shortages, including reports from some vulnerable customers who said they had struggled to get the products they needed.

One Which? member said they were struggling to get fresh food such as bread, vegetables and milk, particularly as they had been advised to stay indoors due to their age and had been unable to secure an online delivery slot.

Another member from rural Scotland said their local supermarkets, which are nine miles away, were filled with empty shelves. As these stores were relatively small, they had not yet introduced special opening times for older or vulnerable customers but were closing earlier.

Which? found that product shortages were experienced relatively evenly across all regions of the country, suggesting the issue was widespread.

The measures introduced by the supermarkets and the government appear to be having some impact and a number of supermarkets have recently been able to relax some of the restrictions that they put in place. The situation around the country continues to change regularly.

However, more must still be done to ensure effective coordination and clear communication across the country so that people are clear on the best way to access the food they need. This includes people the government has identified as vulnerable as part of its coronavirus guidance, as well as those who may be vulnerable because of their wider circumstances.

The government must also work with the food industry to develop an effective contingency plan to avoid any future disruption to supply chains, as well as addressing these issues of availability and distribution.

Sue Davies, Head of Consumer Protection and Food Policy at Which?, said: “Millions of people have been experiencing product shortages in supermarkets, with all parts of the country affected. While many can adapt their shopping habits, it is particularly concerning that we are hearing from vulnerable consumers who are struggling to get hold of essentials.

“Supermarkets must continue to work with the government to explore innovative solutions that ensure people have access to essential food supplies in the challenging weeks and months ahead.

“With coronavirus restrictions expected to last months, the government must ensure that there is more effective coordination of food supplies and clearer communication. All consumers, but particularly people who are vulnerable, need to have a much clearer route to access the right help and food supplies for their needs.”

Environment Secretary thanks the food and drink industry

To those working hard to feed the nation,

In the face of what is perhaps the greatest health challenge this country has faced in our lifetime, I want to pay tribute to all those who are working around the clock to keep the nation fed – in our fields, processing plants, factories, wholesalers, stores and takeaways and all of those moving goods around the country and to our homes.

The last three weeks have been stressful and difficult for everyone working to feed the country and provide them with other essential items. Food retailers have faced an unprecedented increase in demand and those working in food production and distribution have had to work harder than ever to ensure that food and drink are kept on the shelves.

The Government has recently taken some unprecedented steps to close cinemas, leisure centres and other public venues and to instruct people to stay at home, protect our NHS and save lives.

However, there are many key workers that are crucial to the resilience of our country. Our NHS staff will be working harder than ever in the weeks ahead. Those of you working to provide the nation with food and other essentials are also delivering an absolutely vital service.

I am in regular dialogue with the food and drink industry and the Government has offered guidance to employers to ensure that when you do your job, you can do so safely. The advice of Public Health England is that there is very little risk of the virus being spread on food or packaging.

Everyone working in the food and drink industry has rallied in an extraordinary way to respond to this unprecedented challenge. Having worked in the food industry myself, I am personally enormously proud and thankful for all the work that you have done in recent weeks, and will be asked to do in the weeks ahead. In many cases you are the hidden heroes, and the country is grateful for all that you have done.

Yours sincerely,

George Eustice

Update on Tesco response to Coronavirus

We wrote to you last week setting out the measures we are taking to provide more of the food that people need, in a safe and clean environment (writes Tesco CEO DAVE LEWIS).

Our colleagues have risen brilliantly to the challenges of recent days, but this challenge is unprecedented and inevitably, despite our hard work and best intentions, not everything has or will go exactly to plan. But we’ll take learnings, we’ll be informed by the latest guidance from the Government, and we’ll keep going.

Importantly, we need your help to do this.

With that in mind, following the Prime Minister’s recent announcement, we wanted to write and update you on the measures we continue to take, and what new things you will begin to see in our stores in the next few days.

Food for all

  • To ensure more people have access to everyday essentials, we have introduced a store-wide restriction of 3 items per customer on every product line and removed multi-buy promotions.
  • In product areas where demand is particularly high, we have simplified our range to get more of the most popular products on shelves.
  • We have introduced a special hour in stores for NHS workers as a thank you for all they are doing. On Sundays, they can browse our large stores and select their shopping an hour before the checkouts open. All we ask is, if you’re an NHS worker, that you bring a form of ID to store, such as an NHS staff card. We have listened to feedback and are looking at how we can extend this to include extra days from next week.
  • To ensure our more vulnerable and elderly customers can shop for what they need in our large stores, we have prioritised one hour every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning between 9-10am.
  • We know that it’s difficult right now to get a delivery slot for online shopping. We are at full capacity for the next few weeks and we ask those who are able to safely come to stores to do so, instead of shopping online, so that we can start to free up more slots for the more vulnerable.
  • We are looking at every opportunity to increase the number of slots available. As we increase our capacity, we will also set aside more of these slots for our most vulnerable customers.
  • We have more stock coming into stores every day, with up to double the usual amounts of key essentials arriving – but we need everyone’s help: please buy only what you need, so that there is enough for everyone.

Safety for everyone

To ensure we are doing everything possible to reduce the risk of infection for our customers and colleagues, we will begin to introduce new social distancing measures in stores in the coming days:

  • Floor markings in our car parks will help you to maintain safe distances when queuing.
  • Where necessary, we will limit the flow of people coming into our stores to ensure they don’t get too congested.
  • Hand sanitisers are being placed around our stores for customers and colleagues to use, as well as extra cleaning products to wipe down your trolley or basket.
  • In some stores, we will introduce directional floor markings and new signage, to create a safe flow around the store.
  • New floor markings will help you to keep a safe distance from others while waiting to pay.
  • We are installing protective screens at our checkouts.
  • Where possible, we will create separate entrances and exits to our stores, so that it’s easier to keep a safe distance from other shoppers.

Supporting our colleagues

  • We are fully supporting our team of more than 300,000 Tesco colleagues, many of whom will be affected by this situation personally or will need to care for their own loved ones. The countless messages of gratitude I’ve received are testament to the incredible job they are doing, at a time when our stores have never been busier. Your small gestures and kind words really do go a long way.
  • We have almost 3,000 colleagues over the age of 70 and we are fully supporting them, as well as our vulnerable and pregnant colleagues, with 12 weeks’ fully paid absence.
  • Colleagues who are in isolation are receiving full pay from their first day of absence, so that nobody finds themselves in a situation where they have to work when unwell.
  • To help support our team, we are recruiting an additional 20,000 temporary colleagues. We’ve already appointed 12,500 new colleagues, but we will need more. We are also bringing in 8,000 new colleagues in driving roles, and we are training them as fast as we can.

It’s a challenging time for the whole country, but we are committed to playing our part in feeding the nation and to keeping everyone safe.

We also need your help to change the way you shop with us, so here are a few simple requests to help us serve you better:

  • Please check your store’s opening hours in advance.
  • Before you leave home, please bring enough bags for your shop. If it’s raining, don’t forget an umbrella too, in case you need to queue outside the store.
  • Try to shop with no more than one other person, which will help to reduce the number of people in-store at any one time.
  • Please use our cleaning stations to wipe your trolley, basket, or Scan as you Shop handset.
  • If possible, use card or contactless payments.
  • Please avoid shopping during our dedicated times for vulnerable and elderly people, and NHS workers, and be kind to our colleagues as they’re working hard to serve you; we’re all in this together.

We want to thank our suppliers, our colleagues – and especially you, our customers – for understanding and helping.

We know these are some big changes, and we will all need to do our very best to adjust. We will continue to update you as things change.

Together, we can do this.

Dave Lewis

Tesco CEO

 

 

Garden Centres ‘open for business’

A message from Dobbies Garden Centres:

We will be open for business this morning.

We have carefully reviewed the guidance provided by Government, which clearly states that food shops, home and hardware shops, and pet shops should continue to operate to provide essential goods.

In all of these categories Dobbies already provides a comprehensive range, sales in these categories represent 70% of our turnover.

We have therefore taken the decision to continue to operate our stores to serve our local communities.

There will, however, be strict procedures in place to protect our customers and team members:

  • Limiting the number of customers that can be in the store
  • Social distancing rules will apply requiring that we keep two metres apart at all times

We will be working very hard today to bring these changes into immediate effect.

Thank you for your support in advance.

The Dobbies team