Symbol group gives 200,000 foodbank meals in nine months

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More than 200,000 foodbank meals have been supplied by community retailer One Stop since March, says the community retailer.

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The company – a Tesco subsidiary – praised its workforce and customers for helping donate the food, part of regular charity efforts by the symbol group.

Since 2013 One Stop has raised more than £8.8m for national and local charities and the foodbank milestone is the latest achievement.

Part of the foodbank efforts are the food bins placed in the store, where customers can donate a range of products to go into the meals.

Some stores have devised their own schemes to boost donations, such as the One Stop in Guildford Avenue, Swindon, which has been leaving brown bags by the till with the name of products needed on them.

Customers see the bags and put the appropriate products  – perhaps soup, beans or sugar – into the bags.

Store manager Debbie Stacey, who came up with the idea for the bags, said she was not sure if it would work but was pleasantly surprised.

She said: “It went crazy! On the first day, I set a target for the team to try and fill 15 bags and we filled 70!

“People could donate from as little as 50p to £2 but we found customers became really generous once they knew what was needed and where everything was going.

“In just two months we managed to collect 1,000 meals for the foodbank which has really blown us away!”

One Stop stores have also been using food with a short sell-by date to help boost foodbank donations.