Friday 27 June 2014

Tesco Neighbourhood Food Collection Challenge #everycanhelps


Tesco will undertake its 4th Neighbourhood Food Collection next week to help tackle the growing issue of food poverty in the UK. Customers across the country will be encouraged to donate non-perishable food items to Tesco stores nationwide. The collection will help provide much needed food for the Trussell Trust foodbank network and over 1,290 UK charities supported by food redistribution charity FareShare.

 During the last Neighbourhood Food Collection in December 2013, enough food was donated to provide a record 4.3 million meals. In total, Tesco and its customers have donated more than 10 million meals, as well as much needed funds to support the growth and maintenance of the charities Trussell Trust and FareShare.

To raise awareness of the growing issue of food poverty in the UK and highlight just how many families are relying on food banks to feed their children, Tesco invited us to face the challenge of living off a food parcel containing contents designed to last for 5 days. The challenge is to make that food last and share our recipe ideas and experiences. I found it fascinating to watch Famous, Rich And Hungry during Sport Relief, partly to see the culture shock of the celebs as they saw how the other half lived, but also to realise just how dire things are for some people out there. Tesco promised a parcel for a balanced diet but also said that it was designed for the grown-ups and we didn't have to put the kids through food poverty for the week. Our budget was a measly £1 a day per adult, so £10 for two adults over five days. £10 is nothing so I was actually amazed at how much food turned up.


Tesco Mixed Vegetables 300g - 40p
Hartley's Orange Jelly - 3 x 59p (on offer - 3 for £1)
Tesco Scottish Porridge Oats 500g - 65p
Ratatouille Provencale 390g - 60p
Tesco bananas loose - 59p
Tesco Red Kidney Beans 400g - 55p
Tesco Value longlife skimmed milk 1 litre - 49p
Tesco Value Long Grain Rice 1kg - 40p
Tesco Free Range Eggs (box of 6) - £1
Tesco Value Tomato Soup 400g - 25p
Tesco Value Vegetable Soup 400g - 25p
Tesco Couscous 500g - 70p
Tesco Value Chopped Tomatoes 400g - 34p
Tesco Value Rich Tea 300g - 23p
Tesco Value Broken Mandarins 312g - 35p
Tesco Value Minced Beef & Onion 392g - 94p
Tesco Value Irish Stew 392g - 49p
Tesco Value Spaghetti Bolognese 410g - 20p
Tesco Value Chicken Soup 400g - 25p
Tesco Soup Pasta 250g - 50p
Tesco Value Broken Grapefruit 540g - 35p
40 Tesco Value Teabags 100g - 20p

Total price of the shopping - just over £10 (£11.49 minus 77p multibuy savings - total cost with delivery was £15.72 but you wouldn't waste money on getting a home delivery if you were desperately trying to make every penny stretch). Admittedly it's not gourmet food and there are no big brands, but there's actually quite a lot to work with there.

I always sit down and work out my food plan for the week on a Friday so this week, I'll be using nothing but the contents of the food parcel for 5 days to see how we cope. (This is just for the adults, not the kids by the way !). My menu plan will be coming right up in just a moment. (Click here.)

For more details of next week's food collection, go to : http://foodcollection.tesco.com/

You can also follow the hashtag for the challenge #everycanhelps and the twitter handle @TescoMedia

Disclosure : I received a Tesco food parcel in order to take part in the challenge and experience food poverty for a week.

Other blogposts you may be interested in :

Will you help World Vision UK to Grow Hope this July?

4 comments:

  1. thats quite a good amount of food for £10, also shows how much can be saved by switching to some of the own brands

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  2. It is sad that there is Food Poverty. I wonder if those in Poverty will suffer ill-health, possibly malnutrition due to these circumstances. The challenge seems a good idea :- To allow people to have an idea of how to have to manage if / when in such circumstances. It may make some people more empathic towards others. As Britain, and British people seem to have become materialistic. Rather than Caring, Sharing, Compassionate etc. It seems Competition has been was has been encouraged and self-promotion. Team-work can work on occasions, yet there seems an individualistic attitude. Let's hope Britain improves economically, financially, socially and culturally for the improvement of health (mind and body), social and leisure aspects of life.

    Rachel Craig

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  3. I did this sort of experiment a few years ago two adults and three children for £30 a week on ww2 rations for 2 years and it's easily achievable. We ate, baked and had birthdays and Christmas' as well as baked for school events. It requires a mindset and skill base that just isn't taught anymore.... which is a pity.

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    Replies
    1. Definitely - cooking from scratch is definitely cheaper and before the arrival of fridges and freezers, people just didn't have the choice. They had to cook fresh every day !

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