COMMUNITY
ONE STOP
One Stop donates 200,000 foodbank meals The symbol group has been working on a number of initiatives to make food more readily available to others in the community.
O
ne Stop staff and customers have worked together to donate 200,000 foodbank meals since March.The symbol group has been working on several initiatives to make food more readily available to others in the community. This includes joining food waste apps Too Good to Go and OLIO. Liz Fox, Head of Sustainability & Social Responsibility at One Stop, said: “We launched OLIO and Too Good to Go trials in 130 stores between June and September 2021 to help us save surplus food waste from landfill and so far we’ve saved the equivalent of 7,000 food bank meals.”
Foodbank provisions are also generated by the food bins placed in store where customers can donate a range of products. In addition, One Stop colleagues have also been coming up with their own ideas to get their customers involved, including Store Manager Debbie Stacey, who launched the ‘Brown Bag’ initiative. Debbie found that as Covid restrictions lifted, donations to the foodbank bin were reducing, yet the need for them was still there. Debbie’s idea was simple: to purchase brown bags and then pop them by the till for people to fill with products from around the store.
Working with Swindon Food Bank Collective she discovered the types of products they were short of and, on the outside of the bags, she then wrote down what was needed – whether it was sugar, soup or baked beans. Another colleague who goes ‘above and beyond’ is Amanda Simmister from One Stop Grey Street, in Newcastle upon Tyne. She said: “Others who are eligible don’t want to approach food banks because of their own pride. I know pretty much everyone in the community, so I knew those in dire need and discreetly passed them a bag of food when they came into store.”
WEDNESDAY 1ST DECEMBER 2021 / ISSUE 84 / SLRMAG.CO.UK / 25
