“We wanted to ensure that we were doing everything in our power to look out for the more vulnerable members of our communities at this difficult time.” – Chris Riordan, Logistics Manager.

Since partnering with FoodCloud in 2017, Lidl’s weekly food donations have been filling the tables and pantries of our Community Group partners and the individuals they support.

Lidl now offers donations to local charities from over 200 stores across the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, with donations also going to our Cork, Dublin and Galway warehouses from three of their regional distribution centres.

In April, during the height of the COVID-19 crisis, Lidl sprang into action, running a food appeal campaign across their retail stores, calling on their customers to  donate long-life, non-perishable products in support of FoodCloud’s Emergency Food and Funding Appeal. The campaign was a critical step in creating the food hampers and packs that would serve to be crucial for many during the crisis.

“With the generosity of our customers and by utilising our existing infrastructure with FoodCloud, we were able to quickly get the essential supplies to those in need.”

It would be an understatement to say that the campaign did well as it was a roaring success, with over 50 pallets of food donated from Lidl stores across the country, it was a roaring success. These 50 pallets were critical to many individuals and families around the country affected by COVID-19 translating into full tummies and cupboards, warm dinners and peace of mind.

In June, as the importance of face coverings became more apparent, Lidl donated 50,000 PPE face masks to our three Hubs to help us protect our staff, volunteers and drivers working on the front line.

Not only did Lidl rise to the challenge of supporting those affected by COVID-19, but in May they reached the incredible milestone of two million meals donated through their stores and regional distribution centres. That’s over 865 tonnes of good food, or the equivalent of 2,061,278 meals on the tables of our charity partners, and filling the tummies of those they support.

“At Lidl, we saw a great demand on our stores in the early stages of Coronavirus and we wanted to make sure we could maintain our regular donations from our Newbridge warehouse.”

This week’s HumanKind Hero is Chris Riordan, the Logistics Manager at Lidl’s regional distribution centre in Newbridge. Chris was instrumental in the coordination of Lidl’s in-store food appeal while overseeing the donations from Lidl’s distribution centre in Newbridge, ensuring their safe arrival at our Dublin Hub.

Thank you to Chris and to all of the kindness heroes who have worked behind the scenes throughout the years at Lidl to ensure that good food gets to those who need it most and for being part of our Kindness Food Chain.

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