Lidl customers donate nearly 90 tonnes of food to help the people in need

The Hungarian Food Bank Association’s fundraising campaign held last Friday and Saturday was a great success, with Lidl joining in with more than 100 stores nationwide. During the one-and-a-half-day collection Lidl customers contributed nearly 90 tons of food – one third of the total donations collected in the program – to help people in need in their neighborhood. The donations will be used by the Food Bank to put together a five-kilo parcel for people and families in need, which will be distributed across the country until the start of the summer holidays.

Lidl Hungary has joined the largest fundraising campaign of the Hungarian Food Bank Association so far, offering its customers the opportunity to help in 108 stores nationwide. “The aim was to collect as much non-perishable food as possible for families in need. We are very proud of the high level of solidarity we have seen from our customers, whose active participation and contributions have enabled a total of 17,936 donation packages to reach the deprived in their neighborhood. We are also grateful to the volunteers of the Food Bank and our colleagues for their work and support” – said Judit Tőzsér, the company’s Communications Manager.

The most popular product donated was pasta, followed by rice and flour, but there were also a lot of donations of canned goods and pasta sauces. The donated food will be distributed by the Food Bank to the people in need in the coming days and weeks, in parcels of 5 kilograms each, in cooperation with charitable organizations in the vicinity of the stores. The main target groups will be the elderly, large families, and single-parent families, but donations will also be made to family support services and children’s homes, people with disabilities, the homeless and people living in the most deprived areas of the country.

“We had a huge outpouring of help over the weekend! For two days, donations poured in at our collection points, and most unusually, we were often thanked by the donors themselves for the opportunity to help. So, we would now like to take the chance to express our gratitude to everyone who has been part of our efforts. A pat on the back also goes out to our donors, our volunteers and Lidl employees. The work is far from over, of course, as we still have to sort through all the donations, sort them and of course deliver them to the beneficiaries. Of course, the latter will be the most exciting part of the whole operation. We can’t wait to see once again what joy these aid packages can bring” – emphasized András Nagygyörgy, Director of External Relations of the Food Bank.

The Food Bank’s spring fundraising took place in a total of 410 stores in 202 municipalities across the country, with the participation of 5,500 volunteers. A total of 244,303 kilograms of donations were collected, from which the organization will prepare 48,881 relief packages.