Lidl looks to help tackle hygiene poverty
Lidl has expanded its ‘Good to Give’ trustmark to include hygiene products as it looks to help tackle rising levels of hygiene poverty across the UK.
Customers will now spot ‘Good to Give’ signage on price tickets for 10 essential sanitary and personal care items, including tampons, toothpaste and nappies. These can be dropped at existing donation points located past the checkouts in all Lidl GB stores. They will then be collected by charity volunteers who already come to pick up food donations weekly.
The retailer launched the ‘Good to Give’ scheme in partnership with Neighbourly last year to help diversify and increase food bank donations nationwide. This latest move follows research showing that demand for toiletries is increasing due to the cost of living crisis.
Since introducing the trustmark in June 2022, Lidl has seen in-store customer food donations for local charities increase by an estimated 25%.
Lidl is also providing £50,000 of grants for local organisations working to tackle hygiene poverty in their communities. The funding will help good causes in its Neighbourly network continue to make items like period products, shower gel, and toothpaste available to those in need.
Mark Newbold, senior CSR manager at Lidl GB, said: “With the cost of living crisis continuing to put pressure on local communities, we want to go beyond our commitment to making good food accessible to everyone by looking at other support we can provide.
“Hygiene poverty is the daily reality for over 3.2 million adults in this country, and our charity partners working day in day out with those in need have told us that the problem is only growing. We hope that by providing grants and encouraging our customers to once again donate a little differently, we can get more local charities more of these basic yet vital products.”
