Food bank ‘delighted’ by Asda u-turn

FAIR Frome has returned its food bank collection point to Asda after a national outcry saw the company go back on  its decision to remove unmanned collections from its stores.

Less than two weeks after the supermarket giant confirmed its policy change in February, it issued a statement withdrawing the changes and allowing the food bank collection and green token scheme to continue in Asda stores.

The U-turn came after the food banks’ plight hit national headlines and a UK-wide petition  calling on Asda to rethink racked up nearly 90,000 signatures in less than a week.

Chair of Fair Frome Bob Ashford said, “We are delighted by this news and we thank Asda for having listened to a groundswell of opinion and acted upon it. Local charities in Frome benefited to the tune of £20,000 last year from the green token scheme, and Fair Frome received a quarter of its food bank supplies from Asda, so this is great news for the town. It was always a peculiar decision to have made, given the benefits for both Asda and food banks. Having volunteers standing by food boxes would never have been viable or as successful as they suggested, and customers don’t want to feel pressured to donate.”

The change had meant that Fair Frome would have had to have a volunteer in-store whenever it wished to collect. Now it can return to leaving  a collection point at the supermarket for customers to donate as and when they choose.

Bob continued, “This now means that we can go back to working with the great local staff at the store,  resume our regular collections and concentrate our volunteer efforts where they are most needed.

“We are also delighted that Fair Frome, a small local charity, along with local supporters and customers, has been at the forefront of the campaign which will benefit food banks and their customers nationally.”

An Asda spokesperson said, “As a retailer who is committed to supporting our local communities we never intended to stop food banks or similar local charities collecting in our stores. We made some changes to our community programme around unmanned collections in the belief that this would benefit the many local good causes who collect in our stores.

“On this occasion our customers and colleagues have told us they understand our intentions, but prefer us to continue to give charities more options to maximise donations. We are therefore reinstating unmanned collection points.

“Asda plays an important role in the communities we serve and we look forward to continuing to support many more local charities and good causes.”