LIDL TO DONATE £100,000 TO HELP VULNERABLE PEOPLE IN COMMUNITIES

• Lidl will donate £100,000 to help feed vulnerable groups, such as the elderly and families who need help during school closures
• 3 million children are at risk of going hungry while they are out of school – including those who are no longer eligible for free school meals
• This announcement is an extension of Lidl’s ‘Feed it Back’ scheme which launched in 2017 in partnership with Neighbourly and has so far donated over 5m meals to community projects

19^th March 2020: Lidl has today announced it will help put food on the table of those most affected by Covid-19, such as the elderly and families who need help during the newly announced school closures, as the retailer looks to extend its ‘Feed it Back’ scheme.

The announcement will see the supermarket donate £100,000 to its partnership with Neighbourly as part of the Covid-19 Emergency Community Fund. This follows the government’s announcement that schools will close from Friday 20^th March 2020, affecting millions of families across the country.

According to government statistics 3 million children are at risk of going hungry while they are out of school; 1 million children who receive free school meals during term time, and another 2 million children who are ineligible for free school meals but are growing up in households in in-work poverty.[1]

So far, the supermarket has donated the equivalent of over 5 million meals to its partner charities.

Christian Härtnagel, CEO at Lidl GB commented: “We are living in unprecedented times, and it’s essential that we look after those who need it most – that’s why our ‘Feed it Back’ scheme with Neighbourly is more important than ever. Through our store connections, and through this additional donation, we are able to directly support groups who are out in our communities doing an exceptional job of looking after the most vulnerable.”

Steve Butterworth, CEO at Neighbourly, said: “Now more than ever, communities need to come together and support each other. That's why we've created a new Covid-19 Community Support Fund, to help our business partners channel funds into helping the most vulnerable groups, including elderly people and families that will need extra support over the coming months”.

Any community projects that are interested in partnering with a Lidl store for ongoing food surplus donation can visit www.neighbourly.com/FeedItBack or email lidl@neighbourly.com.

Notes to Editors

About the Covid-19 Emergency Community Fund

The donation will be distributed to a broad range of organisations from Lidl;s existing Feed it Back food surplus redistribution network including community centres, foodbanks, schools, homeless shelters, care homes, youth groups, health charities and more.  Many are long standing partners of Lidl who stores regularly work with and have direct relationships with through food surplus programmes.  The money will be spent on improving the access to more food for community members as well as helping to support the running of charities core services.

About Lidl GB

Since establishing itself in Great Britain in 1994, Lidl has experienced continuous growth and today has over 24,500 employees, 800 stores and 13 distribution centres in England, Scotland and Wales.

As part of the Schwarz retail group, Lidl is one of Europe’s leading organisations in the food retail industry. With a presence in 32 countries around the world, the supermarket, which has more than 287,000 employees globally, currently operates approximately 10,800 stores and more than 160 distribution centres in 29 countries globally. The family supermarket takes pride in providing its customers with the highest quality products at the lowest possible prices throughout Great Britain, from Kirkwall to the Isle of Wight. Social responsibility and sustainability are at the core of the company’s daily operations, with the company placing a strong emphasis on its responsibility for people, society and the environment. Lidl GB is passionate about working with British producers and sources two thirds of its products from British suppliers.

The Schwarz Group (Kaufland, Lidl) has been Europe’s largest food retailer since 2014 and generated a turnover of €104.3 billion in financial year 2018.

[1] https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/work-and-pensions-committee/inquiries/parliament-2017/school-holiday-poverty-inquiry-17-19/