Tesco is donating thousands of new warm coats for children to charities and food banks to help families struggling with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis this winter.
The UK’s largest retailer is sourcing the coats from its clothing brand F&F, offering almost 4,000 of them to households and kids in need of support.
Around 2,000 of those coats will be given to the Salvation Army and 1,000 to the food charity FareShare, which will distribute the warm clothing to its network of charities and community groups across the UK.
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A further 1,000 coats will go to The Cottage Family Centre children’s charity in Kirkcaldy, Scotland – who provide a range of support to families and individuals.
The F&F clothing brand includes warm pram suits for babies, zipped jackets and padded coats for all ages, from toddlers to teenagers, and will be in various styles and colours.
Tesco is also making a financial donation to each charity to help with the costs of distributing the coats to local communities.
“With more cold weather set to come in the weeks ahead, we wanted to support families who may be struggling to afford new coats for their children,” CEO of F&F clothing at Tesco, Jan Marchant said.
“We hope that by making these items of warm clothing widely available through our charity partners, we can help more children to enjoy comfortable and fashionable coats without worrying about the price tag.”
Head of Corporate Partnerships for SATCoL, the trading arm of the The Salvation Army, Kirk Bradley commented: “We are extremely grateful for the donation from Tesco.
“The Salvation Army are responding to the needs of people up and down the country who cannot feed their families, heat their homes or pay their bills.”
Bradley added: “This support from Tesco will go towards helping young children who may otherwise not be able to afford a coat.”
Chief Executive at FareShare, Lindsay Boswell CBE also gave his thoughts: “With millions of people struggling to make ends meet as a result of the cost of living crisis, this generous donation of winter coats from Tesco will be a huge help to so many.
“A lot of the charities FareShare supplies food to also provide wraparound care for the people accessing their services, so we know that there is a great need for warm clothing ahead of the expected cold snap,” Boswell said.
The donation follows a similar initiative between Tesco and the Salvation Army before Christmas, when Tesco donated 3,500 brand new toys for nursery age, toddlers and older children.
Last month, Tesco added 50 own-label lines to its Aldi price-match campaign as it ramps up its ongoing campaign to win customers back from the German discounter.
