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Online supermarket Ocado has donated two refrigerated delivery vans to their foodhub charity partner in Atherstone, North Warwickshire as part of a new project to help them to receive fresh food.
The vans have been purchased by the Ocado Foundation and donated to Ediblelinks, an exciting new project operating from the North Warwickshire Food Distribution Centre, with MP Craig Tracy present at the donation ceremony. The Ocado Foundation will also be donating further refrigerated vans to food banks FEED in St Albans and DENS in Hemel Hempstead.
The introduction of refrigerated vans means the food project will be able to receive fresh food, rather than being limited solely to tinned and non-perishable produce, which is often donated by customers in collection bins.
Suzanne Westlake, Head of Corporate Responsibility at Ocado, said:
We wanted to find a long term, sustainable solution to the problem of wasted food in order to help reduce the large quantity that is thrown away in the UK, while providing a variety of fresh and ambient products to a worthy cause." We have been donating food as part of the “Donate Food with Ocado” offering since December 2014, and building on that, we then began donating customer-cancelled orders, including fresh food and products with long sell by dates, straight to our food bank partners. As we’re committed to tackling this important issue, we believe by donating these refrigerated vans we can help people in the North Warwickshire area benefit from nutritious and delicious meals.”
Sonya Johnson, who is Managing Ediblelinks, comments:
We are extremely grateful to Ocado for the donation of these refrigerated food vans and we know just how much of a difference it will make for our new outreach programme, ensuring we can distribute fresh food to those who need it most.”
MP Craig Tracy, added:
It’s great to see a leading supermarket showing commitment to combatting the problem of food waste and I look forward to seeing the refrigerated food vans from Ocado put to good use by the dedicated team of volunteers at Ediblelinks. I’m very pleased to show my support for Ocado’s “Donate Food” initiative as well as for the foodhub, which plays a key part in helping the local community here in North Warwickshire.”
Ocado launched its Donate Food with Ocado scheme in December 2014, which allows customers to add a specified amount – £2.50, £5 or £10 – to their online basket as a donation towards groceries for food banks, which Ocado will then match. Since the scheme launched three years ago, Ocado has donated over 383 tonnes of food to food banks across the country.
Contact information:
David Parke –David.Parke@creation.io / 020 7067 0351
Samantha Harris –Samantha.Harris@creation.io/ 020 7067 0767
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