// FareShare has called on grocers to offer online donation services to tackle food poverty
// Sainsbury’s this week launched a direct to FareShare food donation service
// The service allows customers to donate £1, £2, £5 or £10 alongside their online orders
Major supermarkets have been urged to launch online donation services to tackle food poverty.
Food redistribution charity FareShare has called on grocers to offer the service amid fears traditional in-store collections are being affected by the latest Covid-19 restrictions.
Sainsbury’s this week launched a direct to FareShare food donation service on its grocery shopping website.
READ MORE: Morrisons pledges another £5m in food bank donations
This followed a trial in August, when it raised more than £120,000 in six weeks.
The service allows customers to donate £1, £2, £5 or £10 alongside their online orders direct to FareShare, which has offered to buy food at cost to help feed charities and community groups.
In Sainsbury’s initial trial, tinned meat, fish and fruit was bought for groups feeding hungry families with food parcels.
FareShare said it is crucial that grocery websites allow shoppers to continue feeding food banks and charities, given the ongoing shift to online.
“This is the first time customers can donate directly from online shopping,” FareShare commercial manager Polly Hofmann said.
““The pilot was very well received and many customers have been asking for it to come back so we’re very pleased it’s launching again.
“Obviously some customers will want to continue to shop in store but we know that many are switching to online and looking at that through the prism of FareShare we want those people to still be able to donate.
“The food crisis we are facing because of the pandemic is sadly something which is going to last for years, so it’s really important retailers adapt services to allow customers to help, whether they shop in store or, as increasingly they are, online.”
Last year, Big 4 leader Tesco launched a Clubcard donation scheme alongside its traditional in-store food collections, allowing customers to donate Clubcard points online to FareShare or the Trussell Trust.
FareShare said it had received almost £40,000 since the scheme launched.
Moreover, Waitrose customers have been able to donate online as part of the John Lewis ‘Give a Little Love’ campaign.
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