Local charities in the Lothians helped Aldi donate 12,088 meals to people in need over the Easter school holidays.
The supermarket paired up its stores with local charities, community groups and foodbanks to donate surplus food, prioritising donations to those focused on feeding children.
Around 36 tonnes of food were donated throughout Scotland, with more than 61,000 meals, including over 47,500 meals for children, donated to causes supporting families and children in need.
The donation is part of Aldi’s commitment to donate 10 million meals across the country in 2021, in partnership with community giving platform Neighbourly.
So far this year, Aldi stores across the UK have already donated more than two million meals to good causes.
Mary Dunn, Managing Director of Corporate Responsibility at Aldi UK,said: “We’re proud to support good causes in the Lothians, helping them to provide meals to those in need over the Easter period.
“At a time when more people are experiencing financial hardship and food insecurity due to Covid-19, we are committed to doing what we can to donate more meals in 2021 than ever before.”
Steve Butterworth, from Neighbourly, added:“The school holidays are often a busy time for the nation’s charities and food banks. I’m sure Aldi’s donation will have been a massive help for so many of these vital organisations.”
1.9 million meals distributed – and latest statistics DO NOT include pandemic period
Between 1 April 2019 and 31 March 2020, the Trussell Trust’s food bank network distributed 1.9 million three-day emergency food supplies to people in crisis, a 18% increase on the previous year. More than seven hundred thousand of these went to children.
Across Scotland, more than 237,000 were distributed – 80,000 of which were for children.
Food bank use has increased by 74% over the last five years, the charity reports. The top three reasons for referral to a food bank in the Trussell Trust network in 2019-20 were low income, benefit delays and benefit changes.
Releasing the charity’s latest annual statistics, Trussell Trust’s CEO Emma Revie said: “This year has been an extraordinarily difficult one, with many more people across the country facing destitution as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Food banks carry on, working as tirelessly as ever, to support people in crisis through the unprecedented challenge the pandemic continues to pose.
“The statistics in our 2019/2020 report show the situation in food banks up until the end of March, before the true economic impact of the pandemic had hit. Despite this, we see a rise in the number of people being forced to use a food bank yet again.
“This constant rise in food bank use, year after year, cannot continue. More and more people are struggling to eat because they simply cannot afford food – and when we look to the year ahead, it’s likely even more people will be forced into destitution. This is not right.”
“We know this situation can be turned around – that’s why we’re campaigning to create a future where no one needs a food bank. Our benefits system is supposed to protect us all from being swept into poverty and while additional government measures have helped some people stay afloat this year, clearly more needs to be done.
“That’s why we united with partners from across the charity sector in urging the UK government to make sure everyone can afford the essentials through the economic downturn.
“And we want to see governments at all levels doing everything in their power to protect people from financial hardship.
“We have outlined what needs to be done – it’s in our power to protect one another, we’ve seen it during this health crisis, and we need it to continue during this economic one.”
Police Scotland, in partnership with Edinburgh North East Foodbank and Edinburgh Community Foods have launched the ‘Beat Hunger’ Campaign.
The North East of Edinburgh contains some of the highest levels of poverty in Scotland and this campaign is aimed at tackling food inequality and poverty funded by Police Scotland’s Local Partnership and Initiative Fund.
Local Community Sergeant Elaine McArthur-Kerr of Leith Police Station said: “As an organisation and as employees, we have a responsibility to improve the lives and futures of our community, particularly our children.
“This campaign will initially be open to identified groups within the foodbank community and thereafter extended to the wider community through referrals nominated by our partners.
“Recipients will be supplied with free additional support in the appropriately titled ‘Beat Box’, which will include a community cook book with recipes by Michelin Star Chef Martin Wishart.
“This book contains simple nutritious meals, which can be cooked using the most basic cooking facilities and includes step by step instructions and tips on food management. The recipes cater for those with no cookery skills and will provide an at home activity for families.
“Each week there will be fresh ingredients, supplied by Capital Wholesalers and the utensils required to cook a meal from the book. For example, this week launches with a butternut squash soup and following weeks will include main meals and a pudding.
“Information on family, financial and mental health support literature will also be included.
“Promoting wellbeing is key to ensuring the health and safety of our community and this is a fantastic opportunity to support some of the most vulnerable during unprecedented times and encourage positive lifestyle choices.
“Working together with partners, we can improve the quality of life for the people we serve.”
Due to the pandemic restrictions the main North Edinburgh Arts venue will remain closed, but the NEA Pantry (in the old Co-op building on Pennywell Road) is open today from 10-2pm for new members, resuming usual hours from next Wednesday 13 January.
FRESH START PANTRY
New opening hours for Fresh Start Pantry on Ferry Road Drive
If you need help or advice, please call our North Edinburgh phoneline on 0131 356 0220 and we will help or signpost to who can!
GRANTON:HUB PANTRY
The first pantry of the New Year took place yesterday (Wednesday 6th January) from 11 – 12pm.
The pantry will continue to run on Wednesday’s on a fortnightly basis – next one will be Wednesday 20 January.
Local charities across Edinburgh and the Lothians have helped Aldi donate around 6,644 meals to people in need this Christmas Eve.
The supermarket paired up its stores with local charities, community groups and food banks to make the most of unsold fresh and chilled food after stores closed on 24th December.
Around 210 tonnes of food were donated throughout the UK, with more than 500,000 meals donated and over 750 UK causes benefitting from the initiative in total.
The donation is Aldi’s largest to date and helped 10 charitable causes across Edinburgh and the Lothians at a time when more people are experiencing financial hardship and food insecurity due to Covid-19.
This year, for the first time, the initiative will also extend to New Year’s Eve, when Aldi expects to donate a further 200,000 meals to charitable causes across the country.
Aldi has also worked with partner Neighbourly to prioritise donations to charities and community groups focused on feeding children over the school Christmas holidays.
The festive food donations are part of Aldi’s successful partnership with Neighbourly, a community giving platform that links businesses to charitable organisations. Thanks to this, all of Aldi’s 900 UK stores now donate surplus food to good causes seven days a week, all year round.
Luke Peech, Managing Director of Corporate Responsibility at Aldi UK, said:“We’re proud to support good causes across Edinburgh and the Lothians this festive period, helping them to provide fresh and filling meals over the Christmas period.
“The feedback has been overwhelming and we’re really pleased to have extended the initiative, so we can do what we can for those in need within the community in what was an incredibly tough year for so many.”
Steve Butterworth, from Neighbourly, added:“Sadly, this festive season has been the busiest on record for the nation’s charities and food banks. I’m sure Aldi’s donation has been a lifeline for many.”
Councillor George Gordon, Chair of the Edible Edinburgh Partnership, writes about work to reduce food poverty and promote local growing:
Writing in my role as the Chair of Edible Edinburgh Partnership, I wanted to highlight the superb food hamper distribution programme recently launched by UNICEF in association with the Partnership and Edinburgh Community Foods.
As you would hope and expect, UNICEF recognises the devastating effect the pandemic is having on individuals and families in the lower income bracket who are now experiencing food poverty and insecurity.
This is the first time the charity has directly invested in the UK as they, like we do, recognise that this has created a situation that will take a considerable length of time to fix* (see below – Ed.). Yes, we can see light at the end of the tunnel as we roll out a UK-wide vaccination programme, but this will take time to achieve.
Edible Edinburgh is working closely with the City of Edinburgh Council and other partners to try and tackle poverty right here in Scotland’s capital city – a very real and unacceptable situation.
Thanks to the work of the Edinburgh Poverty Commission, published earlier this year, there can be no doubt that this support is desperately needed – and I’m delighted that the Council has committed to ending poverty in our city by 2030.
This specific programme will supply 450 individual families with the necessary food they require to survive through this Christmas period. I hasten to point out these are all newly identified families who have not been part of any previous existing programmes put in place by the Scottish Government or the Council. The vast majority are delivered through the third sector, who are predominantly charitable organisations.
I could fill this whole column with praise for the organisations involved and with the statistics and individual testimonies from those hardest hit – the many people I’ve spoken to in my various positions as a Councillor about the real hardship many of our fellow citizens are faced with.
I also want to take this opportunity to highlight another key piece of work that Edible Edinburgh are doing in association with the Council – that is the provision of areas of land for food growing as part of the Community Empowerment Act.
Our aim is to identify areas of food growing through allotments, community growing space and at least four areas for market gardens which will be run and maintained by community groups and organisations. A fine example of this is what is being currently built at Lauriston Farm and I look forward to seeing progress over the next couple of years.
My request to you is simple: get involved! Please take the time to give your views (before the closing date on 18 January) and remember there are no stupid ideas. This is hugely relevant and important as we move toward providing more locally produced sustainable food sources for our city and our country.
By doing so we can live better while helping to reduce food insecurity, carbon emissions – and, of course, poverty.
In response to comments made in the House of Commons about Unicef UK’s funding of UK food programmes last week, Anna Kettley, Unicef UK’s Director of Programmes and Advocacy, said:
“Unicef UK is responding to this unprecedented crisis and building on our 25 years’ experience of working on children’s rights in the UK with a one-off domestic response, launched in August, to provide support to vulnerable children and families around the country during this crisis period.
“In partnership with Sustain, the food and farming alliance, over £700k of Unicef UK funds is being granted to community groups around the country to support their vital work helping children and families at risk of food insecurity during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Unicef will continue to spend our international funding helping the world’s poorest children. We believe that every child is important and deserves to survive and thrive no matter where they are born.”
Cyrenians FareShare depot based in Leith, have distributed 1,300 tonnes of food to beneficiaries across the South East of Scotland, creating over 3.1 million meals, since the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic in March.
The Edinburgh based charity tackle the causes and consequences of homelessness, of which food poverty is a large part.
Cyrenians FareShare Service Manager Lynne Collie said, “Since the beginning of covid-19 we have seen an increased demand for access to food in a quick, dignified manner.
“At the height of the pandemic we were supporting over 200 Community Food Members – all of whom are organisations in their own right, serving their local community.
“Our model is two-fold; we prevent unnecessary food waste by working with large supermarkets and food networks to prevent surplus food being sent to waste, whilst helping organisations like Empty Kitchens and Eildon Housing Association to redirect funds into essential frontline work by providing nutritious food at low costs.
“At the beginning of the pandemic the Scottish Government, in partnership with FareShare UK, purchased food in bulk to distribute throughout our network allowing us to really step up our operation. We were in a unique position to provide additional support over the past 9 months because of that network; we were already connected to thousands of individuals who were likely to be even further impacted by the negative effects of covid-19.”
Head of Service Neil Hay added, “The logistics were the most difficult aspect – with an increase in stock we had to consider storage options, staff rotations, physical distancing measures – all of which impacted how we usually operate.
“We’re based in a small warehouse on Jane Street, with a team of volunteer drivers and a handful of staff.
“We have been fortunate to have received additional volunteer support from Edinburgh University over the past few months, helping us to keep our teams safe while continuing to support as many people as we can.”
Cyrenians FareShare Team are still supporting 156 community food members across the South East of Scotland. Demand continues to grow, with 3.1 million meals distributed already this year compared to 1 million the previous year, they need your support more than ever.
To find out more, or donate to support their work, visit www.cyrenians.scot
The Caring Family Foundation has launched a new campaign ‘Food from the Heart’, with the aim to make a difference to the lives of children in the UK living in poverty.
Throughout December this new campaign will provide 80,000 meals to children that are going hungry this Christmas and will continue to feed children in need into 2021.
The campaign was born from the desire to play a role in alleviating the disastrous impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the existing growing problem of child food poverty across the UK. The ‘Food from the Heart’ campaign pledges to feed children with a food delivery program that will have a sustainable impact.
Partnering with FareShare and The Felix Project, The Caring Family Foundation’s ‘Food from the Heart’ campaign will deliver meals across the UK to children most in need of food, found through a nationwide conducted survey by FareShare.
Chefs across the hospitality network, have come together to create nutritious meals for children, including Cottage Pie, Vegetarian Lasagne and Vegan Macaroni & Cheese.
Husband and wife, Richard and Patricia Caring, who founded The Caring Family Foundation will utilise the chefs from their hospitality network; The Ivy Collection and Caprice Holdings who have volunteered to produce healthy recipes for the children’s meals.
“My husband and I feel incredibly passionate and proud to be launching the ‘Food from the Heart’ campaign through the Caring Family Foundation with the support of FareShare and The Felix Project”, said PatriciaCaring, Co-Founder of The Caring Family Foundation.
“As a mother of three young children, it is so important that we are doing everything we can to help children who are going hungry and make a positive impact on some of the devastating statistics surrounding child poverty”.
