UK supermarket chain Tesco has donated free food to a number of street parties that marked the 70th anniversary of VE Day.
Prior to the anniversary on May 8, Tesco contacted party organisers across the UK offering free food for their VE Day street parties. The supermarket said it monitored social media to find people hosting VE Day street parties around the UK, and then sent selected number Tesco gift cards for organisers to spend at Tesco.
Figures released by the supermarket also showed that Tesco customers donated over £5 million during the latest Poppy Appeal - an increase from over £4 million donated by customers at Tesco stores in 2013. Over £30 million has been donated to the Poppy Appeal at Tesco stores since 2005.
Tesco has a long history of supporting the Armed Forces, which dates back to the supermarket’s founder Jack Cohen setting up the retail chain after coming home from World War 1.
Speaking on the anniversary, Robin Terrell, chief customer officer for Tesco, said: “We think it’s very important we do our bit to remember VE Day, a particularly meaningful day in our nation’s proud history. Tesco stores donated free food to local street parties at the time."
He said the retail group is a huge supporter of the Armed Forces. "Our customers showed incredible generosity during the latest Poppy Appeal by raising over £5 million and smashing the previous year’s total for donations. We have supported the Poppy Appeal for many years and our customers see it as a really important cause for us to be involved with.”
In October of last year, Tesco became the first supermarket to sign up to the Ministry of Defence’s Armed Forces Corporate Covenant, which included a pledge to provide better support for both serving and former members of the armed forces.
As part of this pledge, Tesco promised to seek out veterans who have left the armed forces, for employment, and to support spouses and partners of serving personnel to get jobs at Tesco stores in areas with large armed-forces communities.
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