KeyStore’s Christmas food bank campaign returns to support communities

KeyStore is asking its retailers to once again support their local food bank in the run-up to Christmas by placing dumpbins in-store for customers to donate food and other items.

KeyStore outlets across the country are providing collection points for customers to donate non-perishable food products including packaged cereals, rice and pasta, pasta sauce, tinned meat and vegetables, tea and coffee, biscuits, and UHT milk and fruit juice.

Food banks also require vital non-food products, including pet food, toiletries, feminine products, baby supplies and household items such as washing-up liquid and laundry products.

Craig Brown, chief sales and marketing officer at Glasgow-based wholesaler JW Filshill, said that the Covid-19 pandemic meant that supporting local communities would be even more important this festive season. “No-one knows their community better than our retailers who are close to their customers and understand what they have been going through over the last few months,” he said.

“In an ideal world we wouldn’t need food banks but sadly we do, and even more so in 2020 when people are struggling following redundancy or are unable to work because their employer has had to shut down their business.

“Every Christmas we encourage our retailers to support a community campaign that their customers can get involved in and following feedback from our customers who got behind our food bank campaign last year we have decided to run the initiative again for 2020.”

Mr Brown added: “No-one should be going short at any time of the year but particularly at Christmas we know that there will be even more families in need of help and support. It has been widely reported in the press that food banks are under even more pressure than usual just now and by providing a branded KeyStore dumpbin for stores we can encourage the public to support those in need in a year none of us ever thought we would experience.”

JW Filshill has distributed 150 dumpbins across the KeyStore estate of nearly 200 stores, from Doncaster in the south to Wick in the north.