The John Lewis Partnership is stepping up efforts to help local charities in a bid to help end child poverty across the UK.
As part of its Give a Little Love programme, the retailer aims to help people that have been impacted by the pandemic, by donating over £1m this summer to more than 1,000 local charities and community organisations.
A total of 2.3 million children experienced food insecurity between March and August last year, and 850,000 children reported that they or their families visited a food bank.
To help tackle this important issue, each John Lewis and Waitrose shop will be directing their regular community donations to charities in their own communities that support children in poverty. This support will run from May to July – providing vital support during the May half term and summer holidays when millions of children are at risk of being hungry.
Support will be given through donations of money, products (for example, clothing or kitchen equipment) and food donations.
The company is also a member of Marcus Rashford’s Child Food Poverty Task Force, a coalition of brands working together to end child food poverty.
Marija Rompani, Partner and Director of Ethics and Sustainability at the John Lewis Partnership, said: “No child should ever go hungry or be without basic human needs and we want to do all we can to help. By working with the many incredible charities in local communities across the country, we hope to make a real impact and help as many children as we can.”
Marcus Rashford MBE commented: “John Lewis Partnership is a valuable founding member of the Child Food Poverty Task Force and the company has strongly demonstrated their commitment to ending child food poverty across the UK since we formed.
“‘Give a Little Love’ was a powerful and touching campaign over the Christmas holidays and I’m thrilled to see that campaign is being built upon to guarantee more of those in need get the help they deserve.”
In addition to this, Waitrose shops will continue to donate surplus food to FareShare, a food distribution charity. Since 2017, the supermarket chain has donated the equivalent of more than five million meals to those in need. It also works with Kitchen Social and The Felix Project to donate stock to people facing food insecurity.
