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Nestlé to support 8,000 families at risk of summer holiday hunger in new £1 million investment with Community Shop and FoodCloud

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Nestlé UK & Ireland will help 8,000 families who might otherwise go hungry during the school summer holidays, as the company announces a £1 million investment to work with social enterprises Community Shop and FoodCloud.

The support to those 8,000 families is on behalf of Nestlé’s 8,000 employees in the UK and Ireland, from one family to another.

Community Shop, which works in areas experiencing some of the highest levels of deprivation in the UK, will use the investment to provide fresh, nutritious meals for vulnerable children and their families. The funding will also support Community Shop’s broader aims to build stronger individuals and more confident communities through services ranging from debt advice, training and personal development; to a summer programme of events which aims to bring together families to celebrate the power of food, with the sharing of recipes and cooking demonstrations, amongst many other activities such as virtual exercise classes.

In Ireland, Nestlé will work with FoodCloud, a social enterprise that works with charity partners to redistribute surplus food to families in need. FoodCloud has seen an exponential rise in the demand for its services following the COVID-19 lockdown.

Stefano Agostini, Chief Executive Officer of Nestlé UK & Ireland said: "Access to food is an urgent problem made worse by this global pandemic. We know that many people are struggling to feed themselves, their children and even their pets which leads to some impossible choices for a household. As schools begin their summer break today, millions of children are at risk of holiday hunger. On behalf of our 8,000 employees in the UK and Ireland, we will be helping 8,000 low-income families to access food and services over the summer.

"This is only a fraction of what is required, of course. Hunger and food insecurity are serious problems that require significant government-led action across the board. Nestlé is ready to play its part and we are looking at a range of further initiatives, whether that’s increasing our regular donations to food banks or encouraging our people to use some of their 16,000 annual volunteer days to further support COVID-19 recovery efforts in their local communities."

"The impact of COVID-19 will be far reaching but we must all take this chance to consider how we can do things differently for the future and contribute to a strong recovery. Nestlé UK & Ireland will focus its efforts over the coming months to build a more flexible and diverse workplace, adapt our business, help improve access to food, contribute to a green recovery and support youth employment."

John Marren, Founder & Chairman of Community Shop said: "We are incredibly grateful for such a generous investment. It means we can reach more children and families and have an even greater positive impact on the lives of the people in the communities we are so proud to serve. The funding comes at a critical time, with many families facing increased hardship due to COVID-19, and at the onset of the school holidays, where many families struggle to access food and wider support.

"Thanks to Nestlé's incredible support, we can provide an invaluable lifeline to so many, and work together to create a legacy in our communities. It is thanks to the fantastic backing of industry partners like Nestlé that we are able to deliver such a positive social, economic and environmental impact."

Iseult Ward, Co-Founder and CEO, FoodCloud said: "Since April, FoodCloud have redistributed record volumes of food to charities all over Ireland. Whilst this represents a huge achievement for our own teams, it also demonstrates the reality of the growing demand for food in communities, which we are increasingly unable to meet with our current surplus supply. Our network of community partners have indicated that demand for their services is expected to grow, citing the planned scaleback of pandemic financial supports coinciding with back to school financial pressures in August and September.

FoodCloud is very grateful for this generous support from Nestle which will enable us to provide our charity partners with improved access to food that specifically meets the nutritional needs of the families and children they support during this critical time."

According to a recent Food Foundation survey conducted by YouGov*, 3.2 million people in the UK living in households with children under 18 have suffered from food insecurity due to issues such as loss of income or isolation since lockdown began. At the same time, research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimates that 1 in 5 households is experiencing poverty today. Poverty is a key driver for a household’s inability to access food.

 

ENDS

Notes to editors:

*The Impact of Coronavirus on Food – an online survey of 2248 adults in households with children in the UK conducted between 24-29 April 2020 by YouGov Plc.

About Community Shop

  • Community Shop is an award-winning social enterprise and the UK’s first social supermarket chain. It was founded in 2013 by the country’s largest redistribution organisation, Company Shop Group.
  • Community Shop helps to build stronger individuals and more confident communities by providing thousands of individuals and families with access to high-quality and heavily discounted food and products, alongside offering life-changing personal development support.
  • Membership to Community Shop is open to those who live locally, receive welfare support and are motivated to make a positive difference to their lives. It provides immediate food access and support to those who need it most but can often afford it least.
  • It operates a network of five deep-impact social supermarket, including in London, South Yorkshire, North East Lincolnshire and the North West.
  • Find our more about Community Shop here: www.companyshopgroup.co.uk
    • The food brought and taken home by Community Shop members last year alone helped to create more than 30 million meals.
    • Members saved £212 on average on food per month by shopping at Community Shop.
    • 6,259 households have engaged with Community Shop over the last five years.
 

About FoodCloud

FoodCloud is an Irish social enterprise with a vision of a world where no good food goes to waste. Their mission is to transform surplus food into opportunity to make the world a kinder place. FoodCloud tackles the enormous issue of food waste in Ireland and internationally through their two food redistribution solutions, reducing both the environmental and social impact of food waste: a technology solution connecting retailers directly with charities and a warehouse solution, to redistribute surplus food to local communities. FoodCloud works with more than 700 charities and community groups in Ireland and more than 6,400 internationally through their technology solution. Combined, they have redistributed more than 36,000 tonnes of food, which is the equivalent of more than 85 million meals. For details on FoodCloud log onto food.cloud.

For more information, please contact the Nestlé UK press office at [email protected] or call us on 020 8667 6005.

Visit us at www.nestle.co.uk and follow us on Twitter @NestleUKI

Nestlé is the world’s largest food and beverage company.
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