Rotherham customers thanked for 'over-whelming generosity'
STORES in Rotherham have been “overwhelmed by the generosity of customers” who donated thousands of meals worth of items at the Tesco Winter Food Collection in under a week, say supermarket bosses.
More than 34,000 meals’ worth of long-life food items were donated to the collection between November 24 and 29 across the retailer’s large and Express stores in South Yorkshire.
More than 2,000 volunteers across the UK helped store colleagues throughout the collection where every item donated provides support for food redistribution charities FareShare and Trussell in the run-up to Christmas.
In addition, more than £300,000 was donated to both charities thanks to customers rounding up their bill at the till to the nearest pound and online donations throughout the collection period.
When combined with Tesco’s financial support of the charities, it equates to more than £2m in funding in 2025.
Trussell research shows in excess of 14 million people in the UK are now facing hunger, including 3.8 million children, while the team at FareShare say that more than a third of its partners now primarily serve families with children, or services for children.
Tesco UK chief executive officer Ashwin Prasad said: “As ever, we have been overwhelmed by the generosity of Tesco customers who have shown how much they value the hard work of our partners Trussell and FareShare in their local communities.
“I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated and made this such a special event in stores across the UK.
“Every single item donated really helps to make a huge impact in communities across the UK supported by Trussell and FareShare.”