Tesco held its most successful food appeal to date this year thanks to the hard work and generosity of Tesco colleagues and customers throughout Ireland.

Between 2nd and 4th December, in-store and online shoppers donated €236,000 worth of food to local community organisations in partnership with FoodCloud. In stores, volunteers collected food donations from shoppers over the course of three days that were donated to local community groups. Online shoppers were also able to participate this year and had the opportunity to donate perishable food items when shopping online.

As the cost-of-living crisis continues to have a considerable impact, Tesco have also decided to top up customer donations by 20% to benefit those who need it most this Christmas. This means that over €275,000 worth of food will be donated to charitable groups throughout the country.

This will involve an additional bulk donation of non-perishable foods to the FoodCloud hubs in Dublin, Cork and Galway to be redistributed to local community groups.

Since 2013, the equivalent of €1.5 million has been collected in food donations which have been shared with those who need it in local communities. Since 2014, Tesco has donated the equivalent of over 17 million meals through the Surplus Food Donations Programme to more than 380 community groups throughout Ireland.

Aoibheann O’Brien, Co-Founder & Partnerships Director of FoodCloud:

‘FoodCloud is redistributing twice the amount of food compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic and we are seeing the demand for food support continue to grow within communities. In addition to the continued support from our partner Tesco through daily donations of surplus food via our tech platform and our hubs, we are so grateful to Tesco‘s customers for once again supporting the annual Tesco Christmas Food Appeal”.