Asda has removed unmanned food bank donation points from its stores, prompting criticism from a number of food charities in the UK.
For some of the affected charities, donations from Asda shoppers to these collection points accounted for up to 25 per cent of their food supply.
Amanda Bloomfield, chief executive of the Gatehouse Food Bank in Suffolk, which had a permanent collection point in its local Asda store until last week, told The Guardian, “I was called to a meeting at the local Asda last Tuesday.
“I met the community representative and some management staff and was basically told that they had been to an Asda conference, and with immediate effect unmanned collections were no longer allowed.
“The food that had been donated up to that point was to be removed immediately, and there were to be no more collections. There was no reason given.”
However, Bob Ashford from a food bank run by charity, Fair Frome, said. “The explanations we have been given are that customers want to know where their donations are going, and that there has been shoplifting from collection boxes.”
Asda told The Guardian that this does not mean that charities are no longer welcome in its stores, but it now asks the groups to have volunteers on hand during collections to speak to the public about how the goods are being used.
A spokesperson added that the retailer would be investing an additional £2 million into “local good causes” via the Asda Foundation. Charities can apply for this fundingby comtacting their local ‘community champion’.
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Peter Donnelly. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
