Employees from Jaguar Land Rover’s UK sites have come together to collect for local foodbanks this Christmas, with the aim of supporting thousands of families who continue to struggle as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The donation drive saw employees across the business support local charities and communities during December, with more than 10,000 items such as tinned food and cereals donated to help local families in need.
The Food and You 2 survey*, conducted by the Food Standards Authority, found seven per cent of people aged 16 and over had visited a foodbank the previous year. This equates to almost 3.5 million people, with the Trussell Trust’s network delivering a record 2.5 million parcels in 2020/21 – an increase of 33 per cent year-on-year.
Across Jaguar Land Rover’s sites in Coventry and Warwickshire, around 3,500 items of food have been collected in Land Rover Discovery and Jaguar F-PACE vehicles, ready to be delivered to Coventry Foodbank. Employees have also shown their support by donating just over £2,000 to an online collection fund.
The team at Halewood, Liverpool held a two-day takeover, converting one of the site’s People Centres into a temporary foodbank. Approximately 3,000 items were collected for Knowsley Foodbank, which is in desperate need of food and other essentials.
A donation point in the employee restaurant at Solihull saw around 1,400 items donated for local foodbanks, while Castle Bromwich had multiple donation points which collected in the region of 2,000 items for Erdington Foodbank and homeless charities across Birmingham. The Engine Manufacturing Centre in Wolverhampton also contributed approximately 400 items to Telford’s Food Share Project through multiple donation points across the site.
Chetankumar Wadia, from Jaguar Land Rover’s Quality Assurance team who has supported the Coventry Foodbank for five years, said:
I believe everyone should have access to the basic necessities of life – food, clothes and shelter. Food is within my reach to help others so I buy and donate items to over 500 families in the local community. Christmas is the time when everyone should share happiness and I am delighted on behalf of Jaguar Land Rover to help those in need to celebrate this festive season.
CHETANKUMAR WADIA
QUALITY ENGINEER
Gavin Kibble MBE, Regional Operations Director at Feed The Hungry UK and Founder of Coventry Foodbank, said:
Coventry Foodbank is one of the largest in the UK and will have supported in the region of 23,700 people this year which includes over 9,000 children. We cannot meet the need to ensure that no-one goes hungry in our city without the support of local and national businesses and we are so thankful for the amazing support this festive season from Jaguar Land Rover.
