Good Morning Britain's Meal Appeal
We're asking YOU to help UK people in need and support Good Morning Britain's Meal Appeal as we approach the festive season.
Nearly a million people used food banks last year and figures released today in our exclusive survey with One Poll reveal that one in three parents that we spoke to have gone without a meal so their children can eat.
Redundancy, illness, domestic violence, family breakdown and debt are just some of the reasons people go hungry. There are many life events beyond our control and moments where families need help to get by.
We want YOU at home to buy one extra item in your shopping basket to help another UK family. This could be a luxury item or even a store cupboard basic.
Tesco says:
Tesco has worked with foodbank charity The Trussell Trust and food redistribution charity FareShare for several years to help support people in need. There are ‘Meal Appeal’ collection points in all Tesco stores. Each store collects either for FareShare or The Trussell Trust. You can find out which charity your local store is collecting for by clicking on the links below. For every donation made to the Meal Appeal, Tesco will ‘top up’ all donations by a further 30%.
The Trussell Trust runs a UK-wide network of foodbanks giving three days’ emergency food and support to people in crisis. FareShare is a food redistribution charity that partners with 1,700 organisations to help provide food to vulnerable people across the UK.
Find out which local charity your Tesco supports here:
FareShare bespoke shopping list:
Tinned Meat
Tinned Fish
Tinned Pies
Tinned Soup
Tinned Vegetables
Tinned Fruit
Pasta
Rice
Cooking Sauces
Tea
Coffee
UHT Milk
Trussell Trust bespoke shopping list:
Tinned meat
Tinned fish
Milk (UHT or powdered)
Sugar (500g)
Instant mash potato
Cereals
Tinned vegetables
Tinned fruit
Fruit juice (long life carton)
Instant coffee
Tea bags
Pasta sauces
Tinned tomatoes
Tinned Soup
Tinned rice pudding
Tinned sponge pudding
Jam
Biscuits or snack bars
Christmas treats
TERMS AND CONDITIONS:
Food can only be donated via the collection containers in Tesco stores across the UK
Food can only be accepted from the time of store opening on Monday 24th November through to11pm on Saturday 29th November2014
All food donated must be in sealed and unopened packaging or containers
All food donated needs to be fit for human consumption
All food donated needs to be within the best before or use by date
All food items donated must have their own labels attached
All food items donated must have been purchased in Britain with labelling in the English language
Please refer to the shopping list as above for the desired food items required
Please do not donate any perishable food items
All food items must be donated by persons over 18 years of age, or by a child accompanied by their parent or guardian
What FareShare say...
FareShare fights hunger and food waste by redistributing surplus that would otherwise go to waste. We supply this to more than 1,700 charities across the UK, which feed over 82,100 people every day. These range from breakfast and lunch clubs for children, women’s refuges, homeless hostels, drug rehabilitation centres to lunch clubs for older people. We operate in 20 regions, redistributing food in over 135 towns and cities across England, Scotland and Wales. In the last year the food redistributed by FareShare contributed towards more than 13.2 million meals and helped businesses reduce CO2 emissions by 25,200 tonnes.
FareShare’s approach is to tap into good food that would otherwise go to waste and redistribute it to charities, which cook it on site and provide meals and other invaluable support to their beneficiaries. This model brings with it a number of benefits including environmental, social and economic impact.
Examples of FareShare's work:
Croxteth Community Fun Bus
The Croxteth Community Billy Fun Bus is a pop-up children’s hub in a converted bus on the Stonedale Estate in Croxteth, Liverpool. FareShare Merseyside is supporting the project by providing enough food for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day for local children and teenagers. The food is also helping to feed their families.
Croxteth Community Fun Bus has a play area, library, arts and crafts area, internet cafe, a lounge to watch films and an area to hold activities for the wider community.
The community bus is a thriving youth community and children’s centre and was set up by three mums for their children to have somewhere to go. The bus has a chill-out area with a couch and television, arts and crafts materials and computers. The three mums run after-school clubs, sport, film and disco nights, bingo for older residents, and trips out. There’s even a mobile shop next door.
The Huggard Centre
The CEO Richard Edwards says: "Huggard is a registered charity that exists to alleviate poverty and its effects on homeless people whilst supporting them to reach their full potential. Our open access day centre receives sees around 100 visits per day and the vast majority of these people will consume the food and beverages that our day centre kitchen provides. Since becoming a FareShare food charity member in 2011, our kitchen has been able to completely transform our menu from basic breakfasts of beans on toast and one simple main meal per day, to offering full breakfasts and a choice high quality of main meals that would otherwise be impossible for us.
"During this time the number of service users accessing our day centre has increased by 25%. It is a testament to Fareshare’s support that despite food prices increasing by 30% over the past 6 years and both the number of clients accessing our service and the number of meals on offer increasing, Huggard’s food budget has not gone up over this period. We estimate that FareShare’s contribution is worth at least £30k per year to Huggard. This contribution enables us to focus our resources on helping people to break the cycle of homelessness through the provision of advice and support together with training, development and employment focussed opportunities."
What the Trussell Trust says...
The Trussell Trust’s UK foodbank network partners with communities nationwide to run foodbanks that provide three days of emergency food to men, women and children in crisis.
The economic downturn and its aftermath has seen the need for foodbanks soar nationwide. Numbers of people given three days’ emergency food by Trussell Trust foodbanks rose from almost 350,000 in 2012/13 to over 900,000 in 2013/14. The simple, practical gift of food and support at the point of crisis changes lives.
The use of a highly effective and pioneering social franchise model has enabled The Trussell Trust to respond incredibly quickly, sensitively and effectively to the growing need for emergency food in the UK by helping communities to start foodbanks. We currently have over 400 foodbanks in the network. Our vision is to create a nation where no-one has to go hungry.
Examples of the Trussell Trust's work:
Richard: Ex-army dad with serious health issues who faced hunger because of benefit problems
An ex-army man and father of one daughter, ‘always pretty fit’, but has experienced serious health difficulties since 2008 when a chest infection triggered left-side heart failure. Since then he has experienced 2 major and 19 mini heart attacks. Whilst being on a long waiting list for a heart transplant, he developed depression. His heart condition means he is not allowed to work.
Four months ago he became temporarily homeless and was placed in a B&B and put on a waiting list for a one bedroom council flat, but the DSA he was receiving was stopped because he had changed address.
Despite trying to explain his situation he was told he would need to wait for at least 3 weeks for the system to recognize the change and his DSA to start again – in this time he went to them explaining that he needed money to travel to the area he used to live in to collect his prescription (he takes over 17 tablets a day), but says he was told he would need to borrow the money from elsewhere; ‘expected to live on thin air’.
His last visit to a foodbank was the beginning of October 2014.
Since 19 September he has been given a council place, and currently volunteers at the charity Solent Mind (he is a qualified Wellness Recovery Action Plan instructor now, having taken a recovery course), and is about to start 2 new courses.
His daughter is now able to visit him – ‘obviously it affected her a lot, but now she is able to visit me, and she will come and check I’m taking all my tablets’. He said that it was difficult to go into the food bank for the first time (‘male pride’) but says everyone there was really nice, non-judgmental, ‘without the foodbank I would have been kaput’.
Lisa: A mother hit by illness, homelessness and caring for an ill child. She swallowed pride to accept help from foodbank and wants to help reduce stigma of poverty so that more people can access help
‘It’s hard-working families that are hit [by food poverty]… it [going to a foodbank] is not something to be ashamed of, people need to know they can get help when they most need it’.
The mother of four was helped by the foodbank in August 2014 and fell ill in 2011 which stopped her working, she was given foodbank vouchers at the time but was too ashamed to use them: ‘I was too proud, I thought there must be people who need that help more than me’.
She became homeless with her family in November 2013 after the breakdown of a relationship and moved to live with her parents. Moved to privately rented accommodation in March 2014, but was hit by the benefit cap which greatly reduced her income and meant she had to find an extra £400 a month for rent - this meant she was unable to afford food, and was unable to avoid getting into debt (had to sell her car).
Lisa was convinced the family would have to leave the property and become homeless again, but her son’s DLA was finally processed and now the benefit cap does not apply to her family, so she is able to pay the rent once more.She is now a lot more settled, and has been talking to her local food bank manager about volunteering there (wants to give back for the help she received), and has also been training as a support worker with the hope that when she recovers she will be able to help others who were in similar situations to hers.
She really wants to promote awareness of foodbanks and dispel stereotypes – ‘it’s hard-working families that are hit…it is not something to be ashamed of, people need to know they can get help when they most need it’.