Grocery’s ‘overwhelming’ response to the crisis in Ukraine

It’s Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War, with over three million people fleeing Ukraine by 15 March, according to The International Organization for Migration.

So what have food and drink businesses in the UK been doing to help in the relief effort?

Donations

Within days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, supermarkets were announcing big cash donations to charities helping refugees.

Tesco donated £2m to the Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal, Sainsbury’s stumped up £2m for the Ukraine relief work of Comic Relief, Asda announced a £1m support package and Morrisons gave £250,000 to the UK’s Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Appeal.

Other donations ranged from M&S’s £1m for the UN Refugee Agency and Unicef; to Iceland and Ocado’s £150,000 each for British Red Cross and the DEC Ukraine Crisis Appeal respectively. The parent companies of Aldi and Lidl also provided relief running into several millions of euros.

That’s just the supermarkets. Home Bargains has donated £100,000 to the DEC Ukranian Humanitarian Appeal, while Spar invested £25,000 to kickstart customer donations to British Red Cross and DEC.

There are plenty of examples from suppliers of all sizes too.

Meat giant ABP collaborated with other businesses to donate €3m to UNICEF, Médecins Sans Frontières and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Specialist European food importer and retailer EuropaFoods – whose co-owner and director Kateryna Leclerc is Ukrainian – is donating 2% of sales to Ukraine Charity. Boutique rum business John Paul Jones will donate 10% of online sales of its Lowland Rum to British-Ukrainian Aid. And greeting card startup Lovepop is donating 100% of proceeds from a sunflower card for the month of March to Direct Relief.

“The scale of the response from your industry, from corporates all the way down to high street shops, has been overwhelming,” says British Red Cross communications manager Joe Cross. “That level of humanity and compassion in this short period of time is something we haven’t seen before.”

Cash donations remain “by far the quickest, safest and most direct way” for UK business to provide support, says Cross. “It means we can help with whatever is needed, source those things locally and transport them quickly,” he adds.

Supplies

But it’s not just cash. M&S is donating 20,000 coats and thermals for families in need, to the value of another £500,000. Tesco in Central Europe has given food, clothing and hygiene items, while offering logistical support to get the goods to the Ukrainian border.

And again, much smaller operators are finding ways to help. Stonehouse Foods, which imports meat products, is providing funding for its two suppliers in Poland to deliver food to charities at the Ukraine border. “I got hold of the two MDs and they had already started to put their own efforts together,” said Stonehouse Foods director David Walter.

And when Matt Foster, founder of The Parenting Network in Portsmouth, wrote on LinkedIn that he planned to drive a van of supplies to Poland’s border with Ukraine, fmcg sales and marketing fixer Kate Harding “stopped what I was doing” and used her network of contacts to secure extra supplies from the likes of Snackzilla, Childs Farm, Fulfil and the Natural Baby Shower, meaning that a second van was needed.

Work

In its central European business Tesco is offering 1,400 roles for refugees. In the UK, supermarkets are lining up to offer jobs to those arriving here.

Iceland said it would fast-track them from application to a job offer in a depot in seven days, working with its logistics partner GXO. Morrisons this week said it had contacted the Home Office to offer jobs to “many hundreds of men and women”. Aldi said it had 8,000 roles going.

But as of 4pm on 16 March only 6,100 visas had so far been issued under the government’s Ukraine Family Scheme.

“I’m afraid we haven’t had many applications yet,” tweeted Iceland MD Richard Walker. “But we are prepared, should the government make things easier to get into the UK.”

A coalition of businesses including M&S, Morrisons, Poundland and “lots of other high street retailers” is seeking to address the issue, in an effort co-ordinated by entrepreneur Emma Sinclair, CEO of Enterprise Alumni.

While the government this week announced a scheme offering households £350 a month for hosting refugees, those wishing to do so must be able to name the Ukrainian they want to accommodate. It’s one of the red tape barriers which means there’s still “no way for this tidal wave of what must now be about 200 businesses to provide the help they want to give,” says Sinclair.

“The private sector is here to provide a safety net but the government need to do their part with visas and to make sure when people are resettled employers can find them,” adds Sinclair, who met with refugees minister Richard Harrington on Monday.

“We’re bringing it to the attention of the government so they can continue to accelerate and unlock the red tape to make this happen.

“I’m building a blueprint of the end-to-end partnerships that can get people from border towns on the ground into jobs in the UK, including language and accommodation.” 

The industry’s relief efforts have been manifold and significant, but charities warn that with the crisis not easing, neither should businesses’ support.

“This will be a humanitarian effort for months to come and the generosity of businesses will continue to be needed over those months,” says Cross.