Asda and Warburtons to benefit FareShare with new charity ‘promotion’

Asda and Warburtons are launching a ‘promotion’ that will see food donated to help people in food poverty.

The trial, on selected Warburtons products available at Asda, will mean for every participating item bought by Asda customers, another Warburtons product will be donated on their behalf to food redistribution charity FareShare.

The partners said they expected the promotion to result in more than a million products being donated to FareShare, which will distribute the food to local charities including food banks, homeless refugees and children’s clubs.

The promotion will be supported online and in Asda’s in-store promotional areas - and the products on sale will also be reduced in price.

Asda said if the trial was a success it would roll out the promotion to other products in the future, working with FareShare to prioritise items that are in demand at food banks and other local charities.

“Our customers are already incredibly generous in the amount they donate through our in-store food bank donation points, but we wanted to look at ways we can make the donation process easier and increase the volumes donated,” said Asda chief customer officer Andy Murray.

“By working together with Warburtons and FareShare, we can get even more food to those in need in our communities - and hopefully it provides a model that we can use for a wider range of products in the future.”

Warburtons sales director Colin Bebbington added: “As a family business, we believe we have a responsibility to support our local communities. Last year our Families Matter community programme donated over 700,000 products to local community groups and charities across the country. This partnership with Asda and FareShare enables us to get even more products to those who need it most in our communities.”

FareShare chief executive Lindsay Boswell welcomed the move and said it would “enable FareShare to fight hunger on an even more meaningful level by providing increased volumes of valuable bakery foods to our network of almost 11,000 charities and community groups”.