TESCO will expand its food donation programme to help families eat more fresh food this winter.

From November 16, the supermarket will give any of the 500,000 families who use the weekly Healthy Start vouchers, a £1 coupon to spend on fresh and frozen fruit and vegetables.

Every time a customer hands over their vouchers at the checkout, they will automatically receive the money-off coupon to redeem off their next shop.

Marcus Rashford’s Child Poverty Task Force, of which Tesco is a member, is currently pressing the Government to increase the value of the Healthy Start vouchers to £4.25 per week (from £3.10).

The Leader:

Healthy Start is a Government scheme to improve the health of low-income pregnant women and families on benefits and tax credits.

Under the scheme, eligible families are provided with vouchers every week to spend on milk, fresh, frozen, and tinned fruit and vegetables, fresh, dried, and tinned pulses, and infant formula milk.

In addition to funding the £1 coupon, Tesco is donating an additional £4 million of food to FareShare to support it through the current period of record demand.

The Leader:

Combined with its regular food donations through its Community Food Connection scheme, Tesco has made food donations worth more than £60 million in the last year.

Earlier this year, the supermarket provided £15 million of food to FareShare and the Trussell Trust to support those who needed help at the start of the pandemic.

Lindsay Boswell, chief executive at FareShare, added: "Demand for food has more than doubled at FareShare as a result of the pandemic and 90 per cent of the charities we serve expect demand to remain the same as crisis levels or increase through the winter.

"That’s why we are so grateful to Tesco for helping us to support families in need and the extensive support they are offering which will make a big difference to so many people’s lives during the tough winter months ahead."

Tesco is a member of the Child Poverty Task Force, formed by Marcus Rashford, and continues to support his campaign for free school meals for every child that needs them, at any time.