Every little helps

Tesco answers foodbanks' summer plea

- By Bethan Finighan and Husna Anjum

TESCO is giving crucial help to food banks this summer as they report a rise in demand of up to 50% due to many families losing free school meals in the holidays.

Initiatives by the supermarket chain — whose slogan is “Every little helps” — include donation bins in a lot of stores, which are topped up with a 30% financial donation from Tesco.

Customers can also buy prepacked bags of long-life items for just £2 or £3 and donate them.

All the goods go to the Trussell Trust and FareShare charities, which get them into the hands of those in need. They include Kathleen Newman, 57, who is relying on “handouts” for the first time after losing her job in IT a few months ago.

She adds: “I can’t afford to pay bills at all because costs are so high. Most of my unemployment [benefit] goes to rent. I have maybe £50 at the end of that for food. It’s just me, three cats and two birds - and I have to sell things just to feed my cats.”

She receives food parcels at one of seven locations run by Stockport Foodbank in Greater Manchester. Manager Nigel Tedford, who had to rely on food banks for his young family in the 1980s, expects the current spike in demand will last until children go back to school.

Easier