Lidl has revealed that it will donate 1.8m meals to low-income families across the school summer holidays, to support the fight against holiday hunger in the UK.
The food will be distributed through Lidl’s charity network partner Neighbourly and other local organisations, and comes against the backdrop of 31% of UK children living in poverty.
It will include donations from its stores, as well as customer donations through its ‘Good to Give’ scheme – the supermarket’s ongoing campaign to increase the nutritional variety of meals provided for families in need.
The German discounter’s longstanding pledge to help tackle food poverty has resulted in over 25m meal donations overall since 2017.
Lidl has also recently introduced a new frozen food donation scheme – in partnership with Neighbourly – which sees a rapid supply of surplus limited time offer food distributed to local charities.
This expansion of its existing food donation efforts will see even more support provided to low-income families and those in need throughout the school holidays.
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The frozen food donation scheme is expected to save a huge 800 tonnes of food waste annually.
Senior CSR manager at Lidl GB, Mark Newbold said: “At Lidl, we recognise that the school holidays can be an extremely tough time for a number of families across the UK.
“Low-income families, who have access to free school meals through term time, lose vital support during the school holidays, resulting in increased demand for donations.
“We are committed to continuing to go above and beyond for families who have a heightened need during this time.”
Newbold added: “Our donations, through both Good To Give and surplus from our stores, are distributed through dedicated charity partners – we’re hugely thankful for all of their work.
“It remains a priority of ours to provide nutritious food to those in need and we look forward to continuing to do so in the future.”
In May, Lidl called on other UK supermarkets to introduce design changes of fruit and vegetable packaging to make them more appealing to children.
