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Last week, online supermarket Ocado donated a refrigerated delivery van to their food bank charity partner in St Albans as part of a new project to help them to receive fresh food.

The van has been purchased by the Ocado Foundation and will be donated this week to food bank charity FEED, based at The Vineyard Church. The Ocado Foundation previously donated two vans to EdibleLinks in North Warwickshire last month, and plans to donate others over the coming months, including one to DENS in Hemel Hempstead.

The introduction of a refrigerated van means the food bank 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 with products with long sell by dates) straight to our food bank partners. Because we are committed to tackling this important issue, we believe by donating this refrigerated van we can help anyone and everyone in the St Albans area benefit from nutritious and delicious meals.”

Heather Ryan, FEED Coordinator, comments: “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.”

Contact information:

Samantha Harris : Samantha.harris@creation.io, 0207 067 0767

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Ocado donates refrigerated delivery van to St Albans food bank