John Lewis Partnership to donate £1.2 million to support struggling families this summer
The John Lewis Partnership has announced several initiatives to support families through the cost of living crisis this summer.
Waitrose and John Lewis shops will be donating over £1 million to fund places at holiday clubs, trips, equipment to support fun activities and healthy snacks and meals. The partnership will also be allocating £200,000 to the Trussell Trust.
The move follows a a recent survey by the partnership which found that “being able to put healthy meals on kitchen tables” was one of the biggest concerns for parents.
Some 56% said they struggle to get a balanced diet of fruit, vegetables, protein and healthy carbohydrates into their children’s diets at regular times of the year. In addition, 40% admitted that they dread family mealtimes this summer as a result.
While 55% of respondents said they would like more help on how to cook quick, tasty and healthy meals, two-fifths of parents said the biggest barriers to producing healthy meals for their kids over the summer were time and cost.
Lindsey Crompton, social impact and health lead, at the John Lewis Partnership, said, “Our shops play a key role in their local communities and we know that the long summer holidays can be stressful for parents and caregivers trying to juggle work, childcare, feeding the family with extra daily meals each day and keeping everyone entertained. We are proud to be able to help ease the impact of some of these concerns and help reduce the number of families facing hunger this summer.
“Working with the Trussell Trust and other local food banks, we are encouraging customers to donate food or personal care items to the permanent collection boxes located in our Waitrose branches. Since the start of this year, our generous customers have donated the equivalent of over one million meals to people through emergency food parcels provided by local food banks alongside practical support. On top of this, we have donated over 10 million meals worth of food to local organisations through our work with FareShare to date.”
The partnership is also teaming up with Home-Start UK this summer to roll out a programme called Healthy Happy Home. This will provide training to Home-Start’s network of ten thousand volunteers to help them support families in key areas across food, nutrition and cooking, sleep and financial wellbeing.
Select Waitrose stores will also be offering customers the chance to donate Give A Little Love bags, which will contain healthy snacks, toiletries, nappies and other essential everyday items. The bags, which come in a range of prices up to £10, can be paid for at the checkout and dropped off at one of the Give A Little Love food bank donation points in-store.
