UK product giving charity In Kind Direct and Tesco’s ‘Buy 2, we’ll donate 1 ’ campaign, which returned this spring for the sixth time, has supported families across the country gain access to over six million essential hygiene products. 

This year, the campaign included products from seventeen leading hygiene brands, Pampers, Andrex, Kleenex, Tena, Bodyform, Simple, Aquafresh, Sensodyne, Domestos, Sure, Dove, Surf, Wilkinson-Sword, Persil, Corsodyl, Vaseline, and Comfort.

It has so far, resulted in over 1.33 million personal care and household hygiene items being donated, across just eight-weeks.

Since September 2022, In Kind Direct and Tesco have facilitated wide-scale product donations from well-known brands making it one of the largest cross-sector product donation schemes of its kind.

With the number of brands taking part increasing annually, this partnership reinforced the need for cross-sector collaboration across the FMCG category to support families in need

Michael Gidney, CEO of In Kind Direct [pictured on the left], commented: “We’re really proud of what we’ve been able to achieve over the last four years, as a result of our partnership with Tesco and many of the UK’s leading hygiene brands. Distributing more than six million essential products to date is a huge achievement, but across the UK we hear from people in our network about what it means every day.

“It’s the dignity offered to the woman who had been using socks in place of period products; the excitement on the six-year-old boy’s face who had his own toothbrush for the first time; the way homeless service users describe how it feels to access personal care products. And the impact won’t stop there. We are seeing more and more brands willing to come together to help end hygiene poverty – a cause that is much bigger than all of us.

“No single charity or brand can solve this alone. It required true cross-collaboration from charities, retailers and brands who are committed to making a difference in people’s lives.”

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Across the four-year partnership, Tesco and In Kind Direct have:

• Generated 6.3 million essential personal care and household hygiene items

• Reached 5,320 charitable organisations across the UK, helping to support the families currently experiencing hygiene poverty across the UK
• This includes 8,015,916 period pads; 1,229,939 deodorants; 742,726 toilet rolls; and 235,680 toothbrushes over the last five years
• Hygiene products are helping restore confidence in many ways, from providing children with a toothbrush alongside oral care information, to ensuring parents can support their children’s needs without added stress

Tommy Maier, category buying manager – beauty & personal care at Tesco, said: “We’re proud of the impact that this campaign has had helping millions of families across the UK access hygiene products. We would like to thank all our customers, colleagues and the brands that supported this worthwhile cause and helped make a real difference to those in need.”