Pop some pasta in your basket for needy Newham families

Melissa York, Reporter Thursday, October 4, 2012
2:00 PM

Supermarket shoppers in Newham are urged to support the borough’s neediest families by donating food.

For the second year running, Sainsbury’s stores in the Stratford Centre, Myrtle Road in East Ham, and Claps Gate Lane in Beckton are holding their ‘Million Meal Appeal’ in partnership with FareShare, a charity tackling hunger in the UK.

On Saturday October 6 and Sunday October 7, shoppers are asked to buy long-life products such as tinned goods, dried pasta, pasta sauce, rice, tea, and instant coffee and place them in a collection box after checkout.

Online shoppers can also donate £1 between October 3 and 9.

One of the charities benefitting from the collection is Newham Foodbank who will be picking up donations from the Stratford store on Saturday October 13.

A spokesperson for Newham Foodbank said: “The current economic climate means more and more people are struggling to put food on the table, so we really need local citizens to give what they can to help.

“It’s not just people on low incomes who are feeling the pinch at the moment, increased redundancy and fewer jobs are having a real impact on local people and we’re seeing more people turning to the foodbank for help.”

Last year, Sainsbury’s Stratford provided 2,000 meals to charities in the UK.

Andy White, Sainsbury’s community affairs manager, said: “We had such an overwhelming response from our customers to last year’s initiative and we’re excited to be working with FareShare on the second ‘Million Meal Appeal’.

“The total of 1.2 million meals donated in 2011 would be enough to feed a sold-out London Olympic stadium 15 times.

“We hope from this year’s campaign that we can further raise the awareness of food poverty in the UK and support those charities and projects that need our help.”