Almost two weeks ago, The Guardian revealed that Asda had removed all of its food bank collections points, seriously penalizing food banks and the people they help. The very least we can say is that the news was not very well received and Asda most certainly regretted the decision minutes after taking it. Reactions were strong and instantaneous. For example, the campaigning organisation 38 Degrees started a petition that collected more than 89,000 signatures. Still according to The Guardian, Liverpool's mayor Joe Anderson wrote Asda an open letter, stating that, as a family, they "can no longer consider being customers of yours, and I will publicly urge Liverpool residents and others to do the same."
Then, once the supermarket chain announced that they would indeed reinstall the collection points, Mr. Anderson said that "It’s disappointing that we had to lobby a company like Asda, who are usually good contributors to good causes. But all credit to them for listening. I’m just glad that they’ve done the right thing and reversed the decision. (…) I don’t think they understood that this is a way of charities being there at the point that people find it easy to make a contribution." Anyway, the most important thing is that these food bank collection points are back. There's even a cherry on the cake: Asda's competitor Tesco announced they plan to add 100 food donation points.
Photo: Asda
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