The retailer’s community grant scheme has now given £2 million in funding since 2022 with recipients including a Kent cookery club and a national school pantry scheme
A community cookery club has received £20,000 to invest in a van and help meet growing demand for food distribution to families in need.
Kitchen Social & Cookery Club, located in the Ilse of Thanet in Kent, was the largest recipient of Lidl’s Community Fund, which has seen the retailer donate £2 million in grants since 2022.
The areas see one in four children are affected by poverty, and since 2020 the club has delivered over 45,000 meals. One barrier to meet growing demand has been transportation, so the team applied to the Lidl Community Fund for a van big enough to collect food.
Volunteer and cookery tutor at Kitchen Social & Cookery Club, Debra Lestrade, said: “A more suitable vehicle will improve operational efficiency and allow us to re-allocate manpower to our outreach programme.
“We are not just feeding people; we are sharing life skills in health and wellbeing. Every meal is a step towards knowledge, confidence and empowerment.”
More than 75 food banks, schools, domestic abuse charities and environmental causes will benefit from latest round of funding, which Lidl runs via community impact platform Neighbourly.
Another recipient of the fund this year is ReThink Food, which was granted £20,000 to launch a National School Pantry Network. The initiative will help support schools in West Yorkshire and Liverpool set up pantries for families or create supper clubs with an ambition to roll out nationally.
“Our purpose is to make high quality food accessible to everyone,” said Matt Juden-Bloomfield, head of sustainability (CSR) at Lidl GB.
“We’re proud to have helped these good causes and are sure their impact will help to reach so many more people. But our work doesn’t stop there, and we’d encourage any of the good causes in our Neighbourly network to get their submissions in for the next quarter of grants.”
