Neighbourly partnership
At Lidl GB, we want to give back to our local communities. That’s why we’re proud to partner with Neighbourly, an award-winning giving platform that matches businesses with local good causes.
To date, we’ve donated over 43 million meals through our surplus and customer food donation. You can find out more about our partnership with Neighbourly here.
Feed It Back
Working with our partner Neighbourly, we launched Feed It Back in August 2017, our nationwide food surplus redistribution network, which connects all our stores to good causes in their areas, such as charities, food banks, community cafes and soup kitchens.
Not only does this enable each Lidl store to donate edible food surplus at a local level, it also helps to bring our store teams even closer to the communities they serve.
As part of our ‘Feed it Back’ scheme, we’ve rolled out food donation boxes across our stores nationwide. The next time you’re in store, you can donate food, household and hygiene products to help local community groups in need of supplies. The donated food will be put to good use every day and will help make a difference to those in need during these challenging times.
If you wish to donate groceries, keep an eye out for our donation boxes past the checkouts in store.
From cupboard staples to fridge essentials, we are providing our customers with an affordable, high quality and well-balanced range of foods. We know that achieving a varied nutritional diet can be most difficult for people reliant on food banks, and so we want to make a difference.
87% of charities have reported needing a greater range of food types to be donated, in order to help beneficiaries have a healthy, balanced diet** We have identified 30 priority products, modelled on the NHS Eatwell Guide, that will offer a greater variety of nutritional benefits to those reliant on food donations.
Shoppers can donate these products at our in-store customer donation points past the checkout. Look out for the 'Donate Me' labels throughout the store.
**This research was conducted by Neighbourly in March 2021, with 1,126 Local Good Causes in the UK and Ireland responding. It followed a July 2020 survey by Neighbourly revealing the most critically needed food items in the face of rising demand for food banks, the results of which are reflected in the full list of donatable items.
Toy Bank
In 2022, Neighbourly found that 80% of its network of charities receiving support from Lidl would strongly benefit from food, funding, and toys to distribute to their local communities at Christmas. So, alongside donating meals and grants from the Lidl Community Fund, over the festive season we launched ‘Lidl’s Toy Bank’ nationwide. Customers were able to donate unopened toys and gifts which were then collected by the food banks and community groups partnered with our stores.
We’ve brought back our in-store toy banks every year since 2022. From stocking filler to gifts a bit bigger, the toy donations from our customers have helped more children wake up to a present on Christmas morning.
Whether they dug out their unopened toys, games, books, puzzles and arts and crafts or purchased new ones, since 2022 shoppers have donated over 200,000 toys to children across the UK.
Lidl Community Fund
In partnership with Neighbourly, each year we make £500,000 of grants accessible to the network of 1,300+ good causes that collect surplus food from our stores.
The Lidl Community Fund helps these vital organisations tackle food poverty in their local community. Our grants are used to meet the increased demand for food parcels, improve food storage capacity and refurbish food preparation areas and premises.”
Watch Our Video To Find Out More
The Feed It Back scheme launched in August 2017 and we’ve now connected all our stores across England, Scotland and Wales, to over 1,300 community causes that collect our surplus food throughout the week, for free.
The scheme ensures that our surplus items, including fresh fruit and vegetables, and many daily essentials, are making a real difference locally, whilst at the same time allowing us to build strong community links.
How To Get Involved
Neighbourly provides a simple process for charities to register and receive surplus from their local Lidl store.
If you’re able to regularly collect surplus from us, you should join the Neighbourly platform and create a free page. To find out more, send an email to lidl@neighbourly.com or telephone 0117 422 0855. Your organisation will need a Level 2 (or equivalent) food hygiene certification, accredited within the past 2.5 years.
