How we’re helping to brighten a million Christmases
02 December 2019
We work with over 2,000 local food donation partners throughout the year, giving our customers and colleagues the option to donate items to members of the community who need it most.
At Christmas, we know food poverty in the UK is at record levels and our partners can struggle to meet the increased need. That’s why this year, we’ve launched our #ShopForOthers initiative, which aims to highlight priority items customers can donate when shopping in store over Christmas… and all year round. This builds on our work with NCS Trust, which saw Sainsbury’s work with graduates to develop the priority labels on shelf last year.
The campaign aims to encourage one million food and toy donations over the festive season.
Keen to know how you can get involved? Below are some simple tips that should help!
How can I donate?
It’s simple – just pick up an item from any retailer near you or even from your store cupboard at home and drop it off in the donation bins at the front of our stores.
What items can I donate?
Our donation bins accept non-perishable food items, toiletries and toys that are in new condition for children aged between 0-16. Our suggested food items for donation are highlighted in store using priority donation labels but some suggested priority items can be found below. Make sure you keep an eye out for our priority lists on our social channels as well, as we will be providing updated weekly requests from local charities in each region to ensure local food banks receive priority items.
1. Tinned soup
2. Pasta
3. Tinned baked beans
4. Tinned vegetables
5. Rice
6. Tinned fruit
7. Tea bags
8. Tinned meat
9. Tinned fish
10. Instant coffee
11. Milk (UHT or powdered)
12. Pasta sauces
13. Cooking oil
14. Fruit juice (long life)
15. Sugar
16. Jam
17. Flour
18. Cereal bars
19. Honey
20. Hot chocolate powder
Do items have to be bought in Sainsbury’s?
You don’t have to shop at Sainsbury’s or Argos to Help us Brighten a Million Christmases – we’re just making it as easy as possible to donate by having dedicated bins in stores. We’ll then donate items to our local charity partners on your behalf, in time for Christmas!
Where will the donations go?
Every one of our stores has a charity partner that they work with all year round. We know that the average store donates up to 100 meals per week from surplus food from our warehouses. We want to go even further and Help Brighten a Million Christmases this year.
The range of charities we support varies from small food banks, soup kitchens, homeless centres and community cafés to larger charities. The one thing they have in common is that they are all local and relevant to the community. Some of our larger Food Donation Partnerships include The Trussell Trust who have over 400 food banks and FareShare who redistribute food to charity and community groups who then turn it into meals.
Does Sainsbury’s donate anything to charity partners?
All 2,300 of our stores have committed to donating a shop each towards their local food and toy donation partnerships over the Christmas period.
If we have unsold food that is approaching its best before or use by date, we also try to donate it to a local charity through one of our ‘surplus back of store’ food partnerships. This is something that we have been doing since 1998.