// John Lewis Partnership to donate more than £1m to 1000+ local charities & community organisations this summer
// They’re part of the partnership’s Give a Little Love scheme and aim to help end child poverty
// Each John Lewis & Waitrose shop will direct regular community donations to charities in their own communities
The John Lewis Partnership is poised to donate more than £1 million to over 1000 local charities and community organisations helping to end child poverty across the UK.
The donations, to be made this summer, are part of the partnership’s Give a Little Love scheme and aims to help those disproportionately impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
A total of 2.3 million children experienced food insecurity between March and August last year, and 850,000 children reported that they or their families visited a food bank.
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To help tackle this, each John Lewis and Waitrose shop will be directing their regular community donations to charities in their own communities that support children in poverty.
This support will run from May to July – providing vital support during the May half term and summer holidays when millions of children are at risk of being hungry.
Support will be given through donations of money, products – such as clothing or kitchen equipment – and food donations.
The John Lewis Partnership added that it was a member of Marcus Rashford’s Child Food Poverty Task Force, a coalition of brands working together to end child food poverty.
“John Lewis Partnership is a valuable founding member of the Child Food Poverty Task Force and the company has strongly demonstrated their commitment to ending child food poverty across the UK since we formed,” Rashford said.
“‘Give a Little Love’ was a powerful and touching campaign over the Christmas holidays and I’m thrilled to see that campaign being built upon to guarantee more of those in need get the help they deserve.”
The announcement is the latest of a number of initiatives the John Lewis Partnership launched to support families in need.
In addition to the donation, Waitrose shops will continue to donate surplus food to FareShare, a food distribution charity.
Since 2017, the grocer has donated the equivalent of more than five million meals to those in need.
Waitrose also works with Kitchen Social and The Felix Project to donate stock to people facing food insecurity.
Meanwhile, the partnership’s Give a Little Love campaign has already raised over £3 million for long term charity partners FareShare, Home-Start and local community groups, with a further £2 million pledged earlier this year.
The partnership added that it also donated nearly 5000 items of warm clothing to Home-Start to distribute to families during winter.
In February Waitrose launched a new programme with FareShare, Farm to Family, becoming the first UK supermarket to take surplus food straight from its largest suppliers and farms to the plates of those in need.
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