Neighbourly

Getir, the pioneer of ultrafast grocery delivery, has recently reached a milestone of over one million donated meals from its gstores to local good causes through the Neighbourly platform. 

The partnership, which has been running for a year, has now seen over 420,000 tonnes of food donated to over 330 good causes, like St Mungo's Haringey Recovery Service in London, Wycombe Food Hub and Betel Birmingham.

By redistributing this food, Getir has saved 1,520 tonnes of CO2 and made a total financial impact of over £1.8M to local communities. The whole Getir estate is now live on the Neighbourly platform, providing community organisations and charities with surplus food donations on a regular basis.

Getir’s goal of zero food waste sits amongst a number of initiatives to support their wider sustainability and community ambitions.

Their UK General Manager Chris Chaaya told us; “In light of the ongoing challenges families face with the rising cost of living, we are more committed than ever to providing assistance to those in need. As a company, we strive to be active and valuable in the areas we serve and we’re proud to have reached this incredible milestone within the first year of our partnership with Neighbourly.

This initiative has enabled us to directly benefit those who need it most, via new partnerships with over 330 local charities. It’s brilliant to see our store teams forming great relationships with these community-based organisations, that is something we really encourage.”

It's been just 6 months since we partnered with Getir, the rapid grocery delivery company, to help them deliver a UK-wide food surplus distribution scheme. In that time Getir has donated over a quarter of a million meals to local charities and good causes.

"We are now getting more fresh food and snacks for our families"

As more families across the country have been reaching out to food banks and other organisations to receive a full and healthy meal, Getir has provided access to its stores so that surplus food can be donated via the Neighbourly platform, distributing more than 260,000 meals to over 280 local charities and good causes across the UK. The nourishing meals donated, that otherwise would have been sent to waste, were worth half a million pounds and saved a staggering 395 tonnes of CO2.

“The impact we are having on local communities is important to Getir,” said Kristof Van Beveren, General Manager at Getir. “We know this is an uncertain and challenging time for many families, but where we can, we always want to be a company that cares for those people who need our help.”

Meeting need in local communities

Our latest Community Insights survey revealed that 86% of food banks across the country have reported an increase in demand over the last three months, with an estimated rise of 41% more people looking for support at some food banks.

• You might like: Neighbourly Community Insights Summer 2022

As demand increases, partnerships with businesses like Getir go a long way in providing extra support at a critical time for local services on the ground. Rehoboth Community Outreach Club, just one of the good causes benefitting from Getir’s partnership with Neighbourly, said on Twitter: “We could not do the work we are doing in local communities without the support of giving platforms like Neighbourly working in partnership with Getir and many more supermarkets to end food poverty.”

The Store Cupboard W7 have also taken to Twitter to thank Getir for their contributions, saying: “Thanks to Neighbourly and Getir we are now getting more fresh food and snacks for our families. All much appreciated.”

Steve Butterworth, CEO of Neighbourly, added: “We’re delighted to be supporting [Getir] with their surplus food programme which is donating quality to local organisations. 250,000 meals is a great milestone and those meals will have made such a difference for many people in the community that are struggling with the cost of living crisis.”

Sainsbury’s, one of the UK’s largest retailers, has partnered with Neighbourly to donate food surplus to communities across the UK. The partnership will connect individual Sainsbury’s stores to charities and community groups, who will ensure that the food is put to good use in the local area, helping to tackle food waste while supporting a wide range of community initiatives.

Through Neighbourly, Sainsbury’s will have access to over 17,000 local charities and community groups including homeless centres, schools, breakfast clubs, community centres, community fridges, community cafes, night shelters, refuges, churches, and hospices. Selected charity partners will coordinate a daily collection service from their local Sainsbury’s store where both ambient and fresh grocery items with a valid best before date will be donated to them.

Following a successful trial, the scheme is now being rolled out across all Sainsbury’s supermarkets with all locations expected to be taking part by the end of the year.

Sainsbury’s has donated food to charities and community groups since 1998, with the recent priority being providing support where needed during the pandemic. With a third of all food produced for human consumption being wasted globally on an annual basis, Sainsbury’s has pledged to reduce its food waste by 50% by 2030 – and the partnership with Neighbourly is a crucial step in achieving this. 

Steve Butterworth, CEO of Neighbourly, said:

“Getting surplus food to community causes is a win-win: making sure unsold food is put to the best possible use while combatting the environmental impact of wasted food. Sainsbury’s is genuinely committed to local action, and we’re pleased to be scaling up our partnership to help forge strong community collaboration between stores and their neighbourhood charity partners.”

Ruth Cranston, Group Head of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, said

“We’re delighted to have partnered with Neighbourly to ensure we’re supporting people in our local communities through donations of surplus food from our stores. We’re committed to reducing food waste and we’re really excited to be working with Neighbourly to help us with our mission.”

Charities and community groups who would like to work with a Sainsbury’s store to help redistribute food can get in touch via sainsburys@neighbourly.com.

Last week environmental charity WRAP launched it’s latest Courtauld Commitment Annual Report which revealed that food surplus redistribution rose by 45% in 2020, when compared with the numbers from 2019.

This represents more than 92,000 tonnes of food, worth £280 million and the equivalent of 220 million meals in one year.

This came with the news that the Courtauld Commitment will be extended and expanded with ambitious changes to support the UK’s goal of halving food waste by 2030.

Achieving global environmental goals

The Courtauld Commitment 2030 is a voluntary agreement of over 80 organisations, including the likes of Neighbourly and its food surplus partners Aldi, Lidl and M&S, to collaborate across the entire UK food chain to deliver farm-to-fork reductions in food waste, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and water stress that will help the UK food and drink sector achieve global environmental goals.

At Neighbourly we believe that edible surplus food should never be wasted and should instead go to communities in need. With food waste one of the biggest contributors to climate change, we see businesses as playing a key role in tackling not only climate change, but delivering social value to local communities in the process.

As signatories of the Courtauld Commitment we tracked a significant rise in our own food surplus redistribution during 2020 - working with our key partners to help them redistribute over 9,000 tonnes of surplus food, equivalent to almost 23M meals, to those in need - representing a saving of over 34,000 tonnes of CO2. This was through the midst of a global pandemic where need across local communities was greater than ever before.

As momentum increases, we have seen just how great an impact food surplus redistribution can have when communities, organisations, businesses and individuals collaborate and take action for the greater good. 

Yet, as the Courtauld Agreement has shown, it’s a holistic approach that will help us achieve critical climate objectives and, at Neighbourly, we continue to take this view, engaging businesses in a range of initiatives including product surplus redistribution, employee volunteering and targeted financial donations - along with showing their impact through social value measurement - to ensure progress made against SDGs and climate issues are sustainable and scalable in the long-term.

A commitment to halving greenhouse gasses

It’s clear that the Commitment is helping the UK food and drink sector to deliver against the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3 to halve food waste - with food surplus redistribution a piece of a much larger puzzle. 

The Commitment will now be central in achieving and monitoring progress towards Net Zero ambitions and convening action on water stewardship in at-risk food sourcing locations.

As well as highlighting the important progress that has been made, the Courtauld Commitment’s Annual Report revealed ambitious targets for the years ahead which include :

• A 50% absolute reduction in GHG emissions associated with food and drink consumed in the UK by 2030, against a 2015 baseline.
• A 50% per capita reduction in food waste by 2030 vs the UK 2007 baseline.
• To achieve sustainable water management (quality and quantity) in the top 20 most important product and ingredient sourcing areas in the UK and overseas – covering 50% of product ingredients deemed ‘at risk’ from water insecurity

With only four months until COP26, the UK has taken a bold step forward in reducing the impact food has on the natural world. But the next 10 years will be a critical time for those engaged inside and outside of the Courtauld Commitment and beyond to continue to collaborate and cooperate in order to achieve these goals from businesses right the way across the lifecycle of food.

To read the full report, head over to the WRAP website.

Food insecurity has come to the forefront of the minds of politicians and the public more than ever before in the last year, as society has grappled with the social and economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the UK Government definition, food insecurity "covers a wide range of circumstances; where there is risk of, or lack of access to, sufficient, varied food." 

The definition covers a vast range of circumstances. For some food insecurity means some are unable to afford enough food to meet their needs, for others it means they have enough food but it is of low quality and nutritional value, impacting their health and wellbeing.

Surveys of Neighbourly-registered good causes in the early-stages of the pandemic showed a steep rise in demand for services, particularly amongst food banks offering emergency food parcels. Whilst The Trussell Trust statistics show that emergency food bank parcels going to children has increased by nearly 50% in the last two years alone.

Food Inequality

The UK Government’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) recently released much awaited research data (covering 2019/2020) on the state of food insecurity in the UK..

Looking at food insecurity from the lens of many different factors, including age, ethnicity, income and housing status to name just a few, the data highlighted significant disparities in food security across some of the UK’s most vulnerable groups.

The most impacted groups included households with children, disabled people, young people (aged 16-24) and those from Black and Afro-Caribbean communities - all of whom are significantly more likely to be living with low or very low food security. 

Those in receipt of income-related benefits were some of the worst affected, with a quarter living with food insecurity. For those on Universal Credit, a shocking 43% were reported to be living with food insecurity. 

The picture this data paints is that food insecurity is unfairly impacting the most on vulnerable and minority groups. Not only that but the data demonstrates the complex nature of food insecurity, affecting different groups in different ways and at different levels.

Whilst income is a factor, food insecurity is not as simple as not having enough money to buy food. It covers access to fresh and nutritious food, access to decent facilities, access to education on nutrition, physical and mental health, structural inequalities and a whole host of other factors.

A Community Response

This Spring, our Community Survey of over 1,200 local good causes found that a third of groups collecting food surplus via Neighbourly’s partner businesses had set up a new foodbank service as a direct response to the pandemic.

This rise in the number of informal, local-community based foodbanks is a sign of increasing struggles for society’s most vulnerable and marginalised groups.

“Most people who use the foodbank are working parents”

Local communities are seeing and experiencing the impact of poverty and food insecurity first hand and, in response to stretched social and government services, are coming up with their own solutions to meet these needs at a local level.

Omagh Early Years Centre (pictured above) is a childcare facility and after school club that serves 185 families with children aged from 12 weeks to 12 years old. Like so many children’s centres, nurseries and schools, they set up their own food bank for the first time at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic - in order to support those families most in need.

Ciara McKenna, Centre Manager told us: "Many parents with children have limited budgets and, with all the additional pressures that Covid has brought, we wanted to work with families and organisations in our community, to help reduce financial stress, food poverty and food waste.

“Most people who use the foodbank are working parents and some were initially embarrassed about accessing the foodbank. We want to support any family who can use extra food and we offer a discreet pick-up service. We would encourage any family who could use this foodbank to come forward - there are no judgments made, we are here to help.”

“Many families have got into so much debt due to losing their jobs [in the pandemic]”

The story echoes across the UK with The Portchester Pantry - another example of a community food bank set up in response to the pandemic. 

Foodbank Coordinator Julie Sexton (pictured above right) tells us: "People were being furloughed and so had less money coming into their household. We delivered the food at the beginning as people were isolating, especially the elderly. As time went on, families with children were spending more on food as the children were at home all day. 

"A year on from the start of the pandemic, many families have got into so much more debt due to losing their jobs and now being on benefits.

"Now the Pantry has moved to The Hub (part of Portchester Community Association) and we will also be starting a membership scheme where people can pay £5 and get up to £20 worth of shopping to help them back to independence. This will run alongside the foodbank which will always be free for those in most need."

What’s needed

Our Spring Community Survey revealed that, despite the UK’s more recent steady emergence from the Covid-19 lockdown, demand for services is continuing to rise, with local good causes still suffering dramatic loss of income that’s only predicted to worsen in time.

• Read more: Spring Community Insights: Local good causes integral to recovery from pandemic

When it comes to organisations that are offering a food service (e.g. foodbank, community kitchen, soup kitchen etc), 88% need to carry out a weekly ‘top up shop’ on top of the food donations they receive to ensure they have enough essential food and other household items to support those most in need.

When asked which food items these organisations most commonly purchased as part of top ups, the most popular items (in order) were food cupboard items, fresh dairy items, fresh fruit, veg and salad, personal health and hygiene items and laundry, household and cleaning products.

For the majority, meeting the needs of their local communities relies on donations (both financial and essential items) from a multitude of sources.

Tip of the iceberg 

The rise in community foodbanks is the tip of the iceberg, indicative of critical levels of food insecurity across the UK that desperately needs to be addressed.

The nation’s community causes provide a vital service to meet the needs of people on a local level - but more and more they are forced to use valuable and depleting resources to meet basic human needs - fighting fires instead of being able to invest in the long-term happiness and wellbeing of communities.

Working together, businesses and the public have a real opportunity, right now, to have a meaningful impact on society by ensuring good causes have the right support to help local people pull themselves out of poverty and associated food insecurity. 

When good causes have adequate resources, they can not only fight fires - but can also focus on what they really do best - creating sustainable, happy and healthy communities and ensuring we build back better.

Keep reading

300,000 food bank donations made in Lidl Tackling Hunger campaign

Aldi pledges to donate 10 million meals to families facing hunger

Holiday Heroes: the charities that are taking on holiday hunger

Throughout November and early December 2020, customers at Lidl donated 300,000 items of food, including rice, tinned fish and more to local food banks as part of the supermarket chain’s Tackling Hunger campaign.

During the campaign, Lidl stores were matched with a food bank or community cause local to them, with customers able to donate the cost of an item of food by scanning a Tackling Hunger leaflet at the store checkout. Every donation was matched by Lidl, doubling the amount of food donated.

Leaflets, which were available at the store entrance and tills, were available for anything from a packet of cereal at £1.09, to tinned fish at £2.45 or a bag of rice at 85p - making it easier than ever for customers to donate to those in need in their local communities.

“Our Local Pantry is helping feed our 390 member households and their families in Llanrumney, East Cardiff” 

One of the charities to benefit was community and education hub Llanrumney Hall Community Trust, whose volunteers collected the donated food last week from Lidl Cardiff Llandaff. 

Sam Holt of Llanrumney Hall Community Trust said: “Llanrumney Hall Pantry would like to thank Lidl for their contribution through their Lidl Tackling Hunger campaign in support of our Local Pantry which is helping feed our 390 member households and their families living in Llanrumney, East Cardiff.

"The donation will help our Pantry widen the range of items available to our community to pick from in their weekly shop.”

Fair Frome, a charity that works to alleviate the effects of poverty in its local community, were also able to benefit from the campaign through their partnership with Lidl Frome.

“[The donations] will help us reach even more people during these very difficult times”

Chair of Trustees Bob Ashford (pictured above with the donations) said: “Thank you so much to Lidl and their customers for their very generous donation of food totalling 858kg from the Tackling Food Poverty Campaign.

“This will help us reach even more people during these very difficult times. We are delivering some of the food directly to schools today to help families in need.”

Ongoing support

Lidl’s Tackling Hunger campaign launched alongside its regular Feed It Back programme - which has seen almost 7 million meals worth of surplus food donated to local good causes since it began in 2017.

Whilst the Tackling Hunger leaflet scheme came to an end in December, anyone who would like to make a £3 donation to the campaign can still do so by texting ‘Food’ to 70007. You can also donate directly to the Neighbourly Foundation, with all donations going to participating food charities tackling hunger on a local level.

For charities and community groups interested in finding more about collecting surplus food from their local Lidl, please email food@neighbourly.com.

If you’re a business that’s looking to donate surplus food or surplus products to our network of local charities, find out more on the Neighbourly Product Surplus page.

This week Aldi released an awareness raising animation, narrated by football star and child food poverty campaigner Marcus Rashford, that for the first time personifies the devastating impact hunger can have on children.

The animation comes as part of Aldi’s commitment to donate 10 million meals in 2021 through the Neighbourly Foundation, to support families affected by food insecurity and hunger and combat its devastating effects.

In Aldi’s animation, the constant hunger a child can feel is represented by a Hunger Monster that never leaves the child’s side. Whether they are trying to sleep, play or learn, the monster is always there.

Currently this is the reality for one in every five children in the UK who struggle to access adequate nutrition, which can have a dramatic impact on their day-to-day life, affecting energy to be active and to concentrate on school work.

Rising child hunger

Our most recent survey of over 500 local good causes supporting children and families revealed that the problem of child hunger is only getting worse, with the impact of Covid-19 felt acutely across many local communities.

Those that replied to the survey reported that the demand for food provision for families has increased by as much as 71% in the past six months. A staggering 96% of the children they are supporting are missing meals at least once a week, with 42% going without food three times a week and an upsetting 14% of children missing a meal every single day.

“2021 is a time to level the playing field once-and-for-all”

It’s clear that now is the time to act to make sure no child continues to suffer without adequate food and nutrition - with Aldi’s emotive campaign showing it is as much about raising awareness as it is about taking action.

Giles Hurley, Chief Executive Officer at Aldi UK and Ireland, said about the initiative: “At Aldi we’re making it our mission to fight against child food poverty as no child should ever go hungry. Not only are we pledging to donate 10 million meals throughout 2021 to families that need it, this campaign also aims to help raise awareness of the increasing number of families struggling to put food on the table.

“We were delighted for Marcus Rashford MBE to be the voice of the boy, which shows just what an important issue it is to us all.”

Marcus Rashford, added: “Reading the script for the Aldi animation I felt like I was talking about myself 10 years ago. This story is a reality for millions of children across the UK so, of course, I was happy to lend my voice. I'm proud to call Aldi a Founding Member of the Child Food Poverty Taskforce. Aldi has continued to take active steps to combat the issue of child food poverty and I would encourage everyone to get involved in their pledge to donate 10 million meals. 2021 is a time to level the playing field once-and-for-all."

Aldi’s 10 million meals pledge launches today. For more information visit the Aldi website or support the campaign by donating the cost of a meal via the Neighbourly Foundation.

From the 1st January 2021, the government has introduced a new ‘Social Value’ procurement policy meaning all businesses awarded Central Government contracts must demonstrate that they can offer social value in the delivery of that contract.

This represents an exciting step forward, highlighting not only the importance of businesses' economic value for money but also their ability to support the communities in which they are based - social value.

At Neighbourly we’ve already seen the phenomenal impact businesses can have when building social value into their brand and purpose. By supporting local communities via our network of thousands of local good causes, businesses have already proven they can build in scalable and meaningful impact through the donation of surplus food and products, employee volunteering programmes and financial donation management.

We're therefore pleased to see some of these methods and approaches to social impact adopted and recognised as important and measurable factors for government’s future contract assessments and are looking forward to seeing what kind of effect this will have on local communities and wider business communities in the coming months and years.

Measuring social value

The new social value policy will account for 10% of the score awarded to applicants looking to secure central government contracts.

Social value will be assessed with an emphasis on qualitative evaluation to ensure ‘quality over quantity’ - allowing commercial teams to be able to select objectives that are relevant and proportionate to their procurement.

The Social Value policy has been broken down and modelled using key themes, objectives and outcomes that help describe ‘what good looks like’.

The key themes are as follows: 

• Help local communities to manage and recover from the impact of COVID-19

• Create new businesses, new jobs and new skills

• Increase supply chain resilience and capacity

• Effective stewardship of the environment 

• Reduce the disability employment gap

• Tackle workforce inequality

• Improve health and wellbeing 

• Improve community integration

The future for business

It’s never been more important for businesses to take responsibility for ensuring community focussed policies are intrinsic to their purpose - creating a more sustainable and fairer society for all.

Whilst the government’s social value procurement policy is only one part of the puzzle, it is an integral step forward to formally recognising the importance of businesses in supporting the needs of local communities - including a structure for what this might look like. It also represents a telling sign that the economy is moving closer to a model where all types of business, not just those looking to secure government contracts, will need to show social value as well as economic value.

As the new policy comes into play through 2021, we will be continuing to support businesses that are evolving to offer social value to local communities as well as sharing knowledge and insights from this latest government move.

To stay up-to-date, follow us on Twitter @nbrly or via the Neighbourly LinkedIn page.

This year, the Neighbourly platform has recorded 2 million meals donated to local good causes in the lead up to Christmas and New Year.

Through our partnerships with Marks and Spencer, Aldi and Lidl, over 2,000 local good causes collected a total of over 800 tonnes of food in just two short weeks, distributing it to thousands of families, vulnerable people and those facing additional hardships this winter.

"When good people come together they can make a huge difference"

Charities like East Belfast Mission, whose volunteers collected donations from M&S on Christmas Eve - distributing it to over 50 families in East Belfast.

Plus, community groups like Preston United whose volunteers delivered boxes full of festive goodies to those in need - including the ingredients to make a full Christmas dinner. 

They said on Twitter: “This year has been very difficult but when good people come together they can make a huge difference. Thank you for the support for our Christmas Surprise, which helped so many families in need across Preston.”

Even the days between Christmas and New Year, volunteers at Rehoboth Community Outreach Club were still out distributing food and supplies to the most vulnerable. 

They told us on Twitter: "We are out doing drop-offs to local homeless hostels and vulnerable in our community, providing for those in need in South East London. A massive thanks to Neighbourly and Marks and Spencer for their donations over the Christmas holidays.”

Feeding the nation

These examples represent just three of the many thousands of good causes making a huge impact in local communities across the UK and Ireland.

It’s been an incredibly tough year for local good causes looking after the vulnerable in our community - with many more people struggling through the pandemic to afford basic essentials such as food and toiletries, let alone Christmas treats for themselves and their families.

But businesses like M&S, Lidl and Aldi are continually recognising the difference they can make in their local communities through surplus donations, volunteering and fundraising programmes.

Whilst Christmas and the festive season is an important time for sharing and giving, it’s not the only time people need support. As we continue through the winter months and into a third national lockdown, it’s anticipated that more and more people will face hunger and deprivation - needing the support of community groups and food banks to survive.

That’s why we’re continuing to work with our partners in 2021 to develop new programmes to support good causes, so they can continue to work on what’s most important to their communities and offer much needed support to those that need it.

To stay up-to-date on our latest news, follow us on Twitter @nrbly or via the Neighbourly LinkedIn Page.

We’re excited to announce that this Christmas, ALDI has pledged to make a £1 donation to the Neighbourly Foundation for every one of its fresh whole turkeys and fresh turkey crowns purchased in the run-up to the big day.

With turkeys most commonly the centrepiece at millions of homes on Christmas day, it’s hoped that the campaign will raise upwards of £400,000 - making a tremendous difference to local good causes right the way across the country.

"We are delighted to be working with Aldi in helping them to support local communities"

Julie Ashfield, Managing Director of Buying at Aldi UK, said: “It’s great to be able to give shoppers the chance to get ahead for Christmas by offering our fresh turkeys earlier than normal.

"However, we know that for many, food poverty is a stark reality during these difficult times.

"That’s why we’re trying to support the communities in which we operate by providing a £1 donation for every fresh turkey we sell, in a bid to help tackle the issue of hunger.”

Steve Butterworth, Neighbourly’s CEO added: "We are delighted to be working with Aldi in helping them to support communities local to all of their stores across the UK.

"Their food surplus programme has been going from strength to strength over the past two years, and has provided over 7 million meals to people affected by the pandemic since March alone. 

“Sadly, local causes and the people they support are facing a difficult winter, and this new scheme to help tackle poverty through donations to the Neighbourly Foundation will make a huge difference."

To get involved simply head to your local ALDI and pick up a fresh turkey or turkey crown before the 25th December and ALDI will donate £1 to the Neighbourly Foundation.

The Neighbourly Foundation is a registered charity that was set up to provide emergency financial relief to thousands of small charities and local community groups across the UK and Ireland - from food banks, to youth clubs and more.