Arla has launched a nationwide initiative to ensure fresh dairy provision in food charities across the country.
The dairy giant has announced plans to provide fully stocked and sponsored fridges to food charities, in response to issues with storage.
New data revealed an estimated 450,000 people who rely on these schemes do not have access to fresh dairy, with charities forced to decline donations due to lack of storage facilities.
According to FareShare, the UK’s biggest food redistribution charity, fresh dairy products are among the most requested items by users of the 8,000 charities for which it provides food.
In a recent survey of its charity partners, almost all (96%) said fresh dairy was in high demand and that they couldn’t store enough to meet the needs of users. All respondents agreed that not having enough fridge space prevented them from always offering the most nutritious products to the people they support.
Arla is starting with the rollout of 100 fridges to FareShare charities.
“Our charities report that the demand for nutritious dairy products is increasing, but many lack the infrastructure to store refrigerated items safely,” said Ben Ashmore, head of external affairs at FareShare. “Thanks to Arla’s generous commitment to donating fridges to charities across the UK, many of these organisations can now offer a more varied range of nutritious food.
“This donation helps strengthen the capacity of our charity network, enabling them to support their communities better,” he added.
To draw attention to the issue and the initiative, Arla has also launched the world’s first free milk ATM machine in London, which allows consumers to receive fresh milk at a push of a button.
It comes as a study commissioned by Arla found that half of adults (50%) couldn’t imagine not having access to milk on a daily basis with 76% consuming it at least a few times a week.
Meanwhile, 62% were not aware that not all food banks had fridges and therefore could not store fresh dairy products, with 53% of the opinion that everyone should be able to easily access dairy-based foods.
“We are on a mission to enhance the accessibility of nutritious dairy products for communities across the UK,” said Jonathan Dixon, senior vice president at Arla. “Too many charities have to turn away fresh dairy donations because they have nowhere to store it, but by working with FareShare we hope to overcome that.”
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