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Online supermarket Ocado has donated refrigerated delivery vans to their food bank charity partners as part of a new project to help them to receive fresh food.

Two pictures with representatives of the Ocado Foundation exchanging keys with representatives of the food banks

The vans have been purchased by the Ocado foundation and will be donated this week to food bank charities FEED in St Albans and DENS (Dacorum Emergy Night Shelter) in Hemel Hempstead. The Ocado foundation also donated two vans to EdibleLinks in Atherstone, North Warwickshire, and plans to donate others over the coming months.

The introduction of refrigerated vans means these food banks will be able to receive fresh food, rather than being limited solely to tinned and non-perishable produce, which is often what gets donated by customers in collection bins.

Suzanne Westlake, Head of Corporate Responsibility at Ocado, comments: “We wanted to find a long term, sustainable solution to the problem of wasted food in order to help reduce the large quantity that is thrown away in the UK, while providing a variety of fresh and ambient products to a worthy cause.

“We have been donating food as part of the “Donate Food with Ocado” offering since December 2014, and building on that, we then began donating customer-cancelled orders, including fresh food and products with long sell by dates, straight to our food bank partners. As we’re committed to tackling this important issue, we believe by donating these refrigerated vans we can help people in the North Warwickshire area benefit from nutritious and delicious meals.”

Wendy Lewington, CEO of DENS, said: “We have been partnered with Ocado for over a decade now and in this time they have helped to ensure we have ample produce to distribute across the community. We are extremely grateful to Ocado for the donation of a refrigerated food van and we know just how much of a difference it will make for our new outreach programme, ensuring we can distribute fresh food to those who need it most.”

Heather Ryan, FEED Coordinator, added: “We are very grateful for all the help Ocado has given us over the past two years in supplying a wide variety of food for the local community. The donation of a refrigerated van will make a huge difference in helping us to deliver significantly more fresh and nutritious food to every person relying on us for essential meals.”

Ocado launched its Donate Food with Ocado scheme in 2014, which allows customers to add a specified amount – £2.50, £5 or £10 – to their online trolley as a donation towards groceries for food banks, which Ocado will then match. Since the scheme launched three years ago, Ocado has donated over 371 tonnes of food to food banks across the country.

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Ocado donates refrigerated delivery vans to food banks