Aldi has announced it is rolling out new community donation points in stores nationwide to help support those in need.
From next month, stores will feature donation boxes near the packing benches in stores for customers who wish to donate any food or household products, regardless of where they were purchased, to local good causes.
The discount retailer has released a list of items that are most in-demand to help guide customers, which include coffee, cereal, fruit juice, tinned meat, tea, tinned fruit and UHT milk.
Other in-demand items include tinned tomato, rice, tinned vegetables, pasta, biscuits, soup, lentils, baby food, sanitary items and nappies.
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All donations will be distributed to local charities, foodbanks and community groups, that are part of the surplus food donation scheme on selected days via community giving platform Neighbourly.
The new scheme follows Aldi’s commitment to donate 10 million meals across the country in 2021, with the supermarket already working with Neighbourly to donate surplus food from stores each day.
Recently, Aldi donated over one million meals to charities, community groups and foodbanks over the school summer holidays.
“This year, we are committed to donating more meals to those in need than ever before, and we know that our customers want to help too,” Aldi UK, managing director of corporate responsibility, Mary Dunn said.
“This is why we are working with Neighbourly to extend our current donations scheme, making it easy for customers to donate food and essential supplies to those in need year-round.”
Neighbourly chief executive officer Steve Butterworth added: “Customer donations can help make a real difference, and I’d encourage anyone who is able to get involved to do so.
“The list of most-needed items should help guide customers when deciding what to donate; however anything people can contribute will be a massive help.”
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