Generous Stretford shoppers provide almost 3,000 meals for needy families (From Messenger Newspapers)

Generous shoppers at Stretford’s Mall’s Tesco Metro provide almost 3,000 meals for needy families

1:00pm Wednesday 16th January 2013 in News

Kelly Lyth with some of the food donations

BIG-HEARTED Stretford shoppers have helped a supermarket come top in the UK for donated food items for needy families.

Stretford’s Mall’s Tesco Metro collected enough food over the festive period to provide 2,955 meals for the homeless and impoverished.

The two-day scheme at the store was part of a nationwide partnership between Tesco, the Trussell Trust and FareShare to encourage customers to pick up extra food items and make sure people who have fallen on hard times get enough to eat.

The generosity of Stretford shoppers was made clear when it was revealed the store had collected the most from all of the 170 Tesco Metro stores around Britain – more than £1,500 worth of food.

Tesco staff members Kelly Lyth and Margaret Jones were behind the drive to gather meals in Stretford.

Kelly said: “We are really proud that our Stretford Metro store came top in the whole of the country for supporting this fantastic project and it is a credit to the generosity of the people of our community. We can’t thank our shoppers enough.

“We get a tremendous amount of customers through our doors and out of the 170 Metro stores in the UK, the Stretford store collected the most items.

“I was there to help explain the project to people and encourage them to donate but to be honest, they didn’t need a lot of persuading and people came back so readily with donations – it was a really uplifting scheme to be a part of.”

The Trussell Trust is a Christian organisation which works to empower communities to combat poverty and exclusion in the UK and Bulgaria. They teamed up with FareShare, a UK charity supporting communities to relieve food poverty and food waste, to deliver the Tesco wide campaign.

Tesco customers were asked to pick up a shopping list and add an item or two to their shop. Non perishable items were asked for, including tea, cereal, long life milk, biscuits, pasta and pasta sauces, and these are then distributed to people who are struggling to buy their own.

Stretford Mall Manager, Colin McCrory, said he also felt proud that customers from the community had been so generous.

He said: “It is incredibly touching to hear that Stretford Mall shoppers have ensured our Metro store has been the best in the country for supporting this great project which obviously can have such a welcome and vital impact for impoverished families.

“The people of Stretford should be rightly proud of themselves and I would also like to say thank you to the Tesco staff who made sure this campaign to help such needy families was such a success.”