Newark community groups benefits from M&S Christmas campaign
A supermarket is donating £1m to support community groups as they struggle with rising costs and the cost-of-living crisis.
M&S has partnered with Neighbourly — a service that helps businesses to make donations — to give £1000 to 1000 community groups across the UK as part of their Christmas ‘Gifts that Give’ campaign.
Two Newark based charities, Barnby Road Academy Social Supermarket and Newark & Tuxford Foodbank are each set to benefit from a £1000 donation.
The announcement came as M&S Food hit the milestone of donating 50 million meals to charities since 2015.
Store manager at M&S Newark on The Maltings retail park,Wesley Kachela, said: “Although a time of celebration, Christmas can also bring significant financial pressure to families and charities.
"Based in Newark and run by local people, our Newark The Maltings store team feel passionate about working with Barnby Road Academy social supermarket food project and Newark & Tuxford Foodbank and are proud to have helped them support and empower so many local families with this donation.”
Steve Butterworth, Neighbourly CEO, said: “M&S's Christmas campaign is a brilliant celebration of kindness and a timely reminder of the importance of community at a time when support and empowerment at a local level is needed more than ever.
“Findings from our recent community survey found that 83% of local groups are already experiencing a rise in demand on their services yet 69% reported they’ve found it harder to find funds in the last three months.
"We’re delighted to have partnered with M&S on the distribution of this large fund, which will make a huge difference to groups in our network over the winter period."
Barnby Road Academy Social Supermarket food project is a community group which aims to reduce food waste and eliminate food poverty, where the school’s families can collect surplus food that would otherwise go to waste.
Newark & Tuxford Foodbank operates on the belief that no-one should have to go hungry, providing three days of emergency food relief to those who are experiencing food poverty. They also offer access to a subsidised social supermarket for anyone in the local community who needs longer term support.
In the run up to Christmas M&S is also donating 95,000 ambient products, worth £50,000, directly to groups.