LOCAL MSP HELPS OUT AT TESCO’S FOODBANK COLLECTION

Last Friday (4 December 2015), Colin Beattie, MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, visited Dalkeith’s Tesco Superstore to help with their neighbourhood food collection for local foodbanks. Tesco has held regular foodbank collections since December 2012, so far donating a total of 27.5 million meals to local Trussell Trust foodbanks and regional FareShare depots to help feed people in need across the UK.

Tesco has expanded their efforts since beginning in 2012, extending the Neighbourhood Food Collection over three days instead of two, or to two weeks in smaller stores, and installing permanent food collection points in 500 of their stores countrywide. Since 2013 Tesco—working with FareShare and FoodCloud—has provided over 1,800 tonnes of food by donating surplus groceries at the end of the working day, reducing food waste and providing more than 4,000 meals to those in need.

Commenting, Colin Beattie said,

“I am delighted to help at Tesco’s Neighbourhood Food Collection this year in Dalkeith, and I give my thanks to all of the customers, volunteers, and staff who make such successful programmes like these possible.

In the past three months, 802 people in Midlothian alone have been referred to foodbanks, including 299 children. It is our moral duty to ensure that we do all we can to help those most in need, and food collections like these are making a real difference in people’s lives.”