Food redistribution charity FareShare has urged supermarkets to tackle food poverty by using its online donation scheme.
The scheme enables customers to donate £1, £2, £5 or £10 along with their online orders directly to the charity, which has offered to purchase food at cost to help feed charities and community groups.
Earlier this week, Sainsbury’s launched a direct to FareShare food donation website on its grocery site. This followed a trial in August when it raised north of £120,000 in six weeks.
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“This is the first time customers can donate directly from online shopping,” FareShare commercial manager Polly Hofmann said.
“The pilot was very well received and many customers have been asking for it to come back so we’re very pleased it’s launching again.
“Some customers will want to continue to shop in-store but we know that many are switching to online and looking at that through the prism of FareShare we want those people to still be able to donate.”
She added: “The food crisis we are facing because of the pandemic is sadly something which is going to last for years, so it’s really important retailers adapt services to allow customers to help, whether they shop in-store or, as increasingly they are, online.”
The news comes as Big 4 grocer Tesco, launched a clubcard donation scheme last year, allowing customers to donate their Clubcard points online to FareShare or Trussell Trust.
FareShare claims to have received almost £40,000 since the scheme has begun.
