Asda donates money to help food banks during coronavirus crisis as supermarkets offer new jobs
Supermarket chain Asda will donate £5m to partner charities.
The donation to the Trussell Trust and FareShare is part of an effort to help four million vulnerable families.
“This funding will help us recruit and train new food bank volunteers across the UK, and support the coordination of packing and delivering pre-made food parcels to people who need a food bank’s help, but can’t leave their homes,” Emma Revie, boss of the Trussell Trust, said.
Asda also announced priority hours for NHS workers will be 8-9am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in larger stores.
“In this unprecedented time of COVID-19 crisis, we are immensely grateful to our partner Asda for their incredible support of £5 million,” Lindsay Boswell, boss of FareShare, said.
This comes after the supermarket announced the creation 5000 temporary jobs.
Providing new jobs
Major supermarkets have announced plans to create thousands of new jobs to provide employment for those laid off due to coronavirus.
Aldi will hire 9,000 new workers, 4,000 of which will be permanent and 5,000 temporary.
It said there is a possibility those hired temporarily could have their positions made permanent.
Lidl has also announced the creation of 2500 posts.
Aldi and Lidl supermarkets are committed to paying the national living wage of £9.30 an hour for shop assistants outside London.
Separately, John Lewis has decided to move 2000 staff over to Waitrose to “fill a void” at its supermarkets business.
Tesco will create 20,000 job to last at least 12 weeks which will be filled through a streamlined recruitment process.
Unprecedented situation
Since the crisis began, there have been scenes of panic buying leaving shelves empty resulting in some stores imposing item limits.
The government’s advice for people to reduce social interaction by avoiding public places has led to concerns jobs in the retail and hospitality sector could be lost.
The government’s most recent update set out the announced the quarantine of people with certain medical conditions.
It also set out plans for local support hubs and assistance from the armed forces.