Tesco customers in Powys taking part in a new campaign to provide meals to children living in food insecurity have helped enable thousands of meals to be donated to groups offering them support.

Over three weeks in July and August, Tesco gave a donation for every piece of fruit and veg purchased across all its Welsh stores, to provide food for its partner FareShare to redistribute to children’s charities.

Welsh stores sold over 8 million pieces of fresh fruit and veg over the campaign period, which means they’ve been able to help FareShare support 207 community groups across the nation to feed children in need this summer.

Across the UK, over 5000 charities will now be given food to help the 2.3 million children in the UK living in food insecurity. The warm summer weather saw bumper purchases of strawberries, cucumbers and bananas, allowing Tesco to exceed its target of providing 3m meals-worth of food to help charities and community groups supplied by FareShare.

Tesco has been working with FareShare since 2016 and to date has redistributed more than 120 million meals of food to charities and community groups across the UK.

‘Buy One to Help a Child’ is the latest in a number of Tesco community focused programmes which are helping to build stronger communities.

FareShare CEO Lindsay Boswell CBE said: “During the summer months, many families can struggle without the safety net of free school meals.

“At FareShare, we work with a network of around 10,500 charities and community groups supporting children and families across the UK. With so many more people facing tough circumstances as a result of the pandemic, this food is needed more than ever.

“Thank you to every single Tesco customer in Wales who made a purchase during this campaign – through the simple act of buying your fruit and veg at Tesco, you’re helping FareShare to get fresh, healthy food to children across the UK.”

Jason Tarry, Tesco UK and ROI CEO, said: “We wanted to find a really simple way to do our bit and help our customers do the same, and we are delighted at the success of the Buy One to Help a Child scheme. By encouraging healthier choices for our customers while helping to feed children through our partnership with FareShare we can play our part in supporting stronger communities.”

Tesco is a member of the Child Poverty Task Force, formed by Marcus Rashford, and continues to support his campaign for free school meals for every child that needs them, at any time.