Lidl is donating over 260,000 meals over the May half term as it has unveiled its first ever Community Impact Report.

Last year, the discounter provided food, funding and toys to the value of £13.5m to local communities, with over 90% of this aid going to organisations that support children, young people and young families.

During 2023, Lidl also raised over £1.77m for the running of counselling service Childline as part of its partnership with NSPCC, and is on track to raise a total of over £10m by 2025.

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The report highlights how the retailer is working closely with local community groups to fight food insecurity, with its fresh and frozen food donations having provided over 10 million meals to over 2,000 food banks last year, which in turn supported thousands of people across Great Britain.

Through its Christmas toy bank, the grocer also provided more than 100,000 toys to charities.

Lidl GB senior CRS manager Mark Newbold said: “With over 960 stores across the length and breadth of Great Britain, Lidl is at the very heart of thousands of communities. We’ve worked with our charity partners to conduct in depth research to ensure that the support we give reaches the people in those communities who need it the most.

“We’re proud to outline our successes to date in our first ever Community Impact Report, but our dedication doesn’t stop here. Our purpose is to make good food accessible to everyone and we take that very seriously as times continue to be uncertain and many families struggle to keep themselves afloat.

“We’ll continue to do everything we can to support the increase in demand for local charities and services.”

So far this year, on top of the 260,000 meals donated over the May half term, Lidl also donated over 458,000 meals to local causes and charities during the Easter school holidays.