John Lewis to donate £1.2m to support families this summer

The John Lewis Partnership has unveiled several initiatives to support families this summer, including unlocking £1 million for local charities and organisations helping to support children in families on the lowest incomes across the UK during the summer holidays, as well as a £200,000 donation to the Trussell Trust.

Being able to put healthy meals on kitchen tables is one of the biggest concerns for parents this summer, according to a recent survey by the John Lewis Partnership. 56% said they struggle to get a balanced diet into their children's diets at regular times of the year, let alone during the summer holidays.

The Partnership is also partnering with Home-Start UK this summer to roll out a programme called Healthy Happy Home. This will provide training to Home-Start’s network of 10,000 volunteers to help them support families in key areas including food, cooking, sleep and financial wellbeing. In addition, Waitrose will accept Free School Meal vouchers throughout the summer and will continue to work with FareShare to donate surplus food to people supported by their community partners.

Select Waitrose stores will also be offering customers the chance to donate Give A Little Love bags, which will contain healthy snacks, toiletries and other essential everyday items. The bags, which come in a range of prices up to £10, can be paid for at the checkout and dropped off at one of the food bank donation points in-store.

Lindsey Crompton, Partner and Social Impact & Health Lead, at the John Lewis Partnership, said: “Our shops play a key role in their local communities and we know that the long summer holidays can be stressful for parents and caregivers trying to juggle work, childcare, feeding the family with extra daily meals each day and keeping everyone entertained. We are proud to be able to help ease the impact of some of these concerns and help reduce the number of families facing hunger this summer.”

“Working with the Trussell Trust and other local food banks, we are encouraging customers to donate food or personal care items to the permanent collection boxes located in our Waitrose branches. Since the start of this year, our generous customers have donated the equivalent of over one million meals to people through emergency food parcels provided by local food banks alongside practical support. On top of this, we have donated over 10 million meals worth of food to local organisations through our work with FareShare to date.”