Last year, as the cost-of-living continued to be top of mind with more people across Northern Ireland reliant on food charities to access good quality food, Marks & Spencer donated more than a million meals to good causes across the region.
The level of support for food donated by the retailer has continued to rise year-on-year with M&S Foodhalls across Northern Ireland having donated more than 3.4 million surplus food packages to local charities and organisations since 2015.
These donations contributed to Marks & Spencer achieving its UK wide milestone of 70 million meals to local charities with long-standing food redistribution partner Neighbourly.
LifeHub NI is just one of the projects to benefit from this partnership having received more than 460,000 meals alone since the charity joined in partnership with M&S in 2018 via Neighbourly. The charity supplies meals to more than 350 families a week placing a focus on fresh produce and meals rather than ambient products.
Since the launch of the surplus partnership in 2015, M&S have been working with Neighbourly to redistribute surplus food from store, which is too good to waste, to more than 3,000 local charities and community organisations across the UK. To date, the partnership has supported over 4.5 million individuals, with meal donations supporting families in need, young people and those with disabilities.