B&M giving £1 million to food banks to help people struggling during coronavirus crisis

B&M has announced it will be donating £1 million to food banks across the UK, to help people who are struggling during the coronavirus pandemic.

Each of its 670 stores will be supporting a local food bank with a £1,500 donation of food, cleaning and personal hygiene goods to reach struggling families.

Food banks are being asked to contact B&M and register their details here so they can get involved.

Hugh Venables / Geograph

B&M CEO, Simon Arora, said: “B&M is immensely proud of the part it has played this last week in helping families buy food, cleaning goods and essential toiletries. We have served 7 million shoppers in 7 days, and our colleagues have worked tirelessly to keep shelves stocked.

“We realise however that many of the communities we serve have households in them that are really struggling to buy their groceries due to recent lay-offs. We hope that this donation at grass roots local level across the whole of the UK will allow some essential groceries to get to those who need them as quickly as possible.”  

Within the last week B&M has seen a huge surge in sales especially for products like toilet rolls (300% increase), hand wash (1200%), tinned tuna (583%) and even Pot Noodles (610%).

Jaggery / Geograph

Its six UK warehouses have switched capacity to grocery items, prioritising those that are most in demand, such as food, cleaning products and toiletries.

The warehouses have been running 24-hours a day and more than 3,400 deliveries have been made to stores this last week, to ensure that there’s a continuous flow of new stock.

As a result of the strong demand, B&M has created an additional 300 jobs at their depots in Speke and Bedford – giving priority to local applicants who have been recently laid off due to Covid19.