That I didn't know about Ocado's food bank donation feature

[bananafish81]

I'm kicking myself as I've been shopping with Ocado for years, but only just discovered that you can add food bank vouchers to your order. And that Ocado say they'll match your donation.

I could have been donating to a food bank with EVERY order. Sob. I feel like a muppet for not knowing this!

I've donated to the Trussell Trust as a way of supporting food banks, but this is such an easy way of doing it on an ongoing basis, especially if Ocado match the donation. I could add a fiver or tenner every weekly shop, which would make a small difference to my weekly expenditure, but would rack up over the course of a year.

AIBU to feel clueless for only just discovering this option. And AIBU to think Ocado should publicise it more?

I’ve used them for years too and had no idea.

Exactly! If you search 'food bank' the vouchers will come up

Scheme is called 'You give, we give'

I've added a £5 food bank vouchers as a regular, so it'll be automatically added to my basket every week.

I didn't know this either and have been with them since they began!

Apparently they launched it in 2014

blog.ocado.com/2015/12/17/donate-food-with-ocado-one-year-of-giving/

I found it on the app straight away just type in food bank.

It's a really good idea. Does any other supermarket do this?

That's amazing. I did a collection around my street just before Christmas, we collected a couple of carrier bags of food for the local food bank and they sent a letter back thanking us and saying we had provided 81 meals of food. A little goes a long way!

It usually at the top of the Ocado Home page, one of the options with the weekly offers/sales etc.

I had never heard of this either. What a great idea.

Now Ocado just needs to sort out the insane amount of plastic my shopping comes in!

Thank you for highlighting this, I had no idea.

There have been a fair few MN threads about this before

It's not that obvious on the Ocado site/app - of you use the 'browse' feature, it's under: newsagent&entertainment > gifts&vouchers > vouchers

Available & £2:50, £5 or £10

There must be thousands of Ocado shoppers on MN. If @MNHQ were to promote this, I'd imagine donations would get a significant bump.

Hint hint, MN....

Bump!

I didn't know either!

Perhaps I am just naturally suspicious, but reading this it sounds like they donate surplus and unwanted food where customers have cancelled their orders, rather than what the food banks actually need?

From the list of food they've given -
Whole chicke - most food bank client will not have an oven or afford he fuel, and will go off quickly
Sausages - again, might not be able to cook though more likely to be useful, and will go off
Lasagne sheets - not a lot of point in having lasagne sheets if you don't have the facilities (oven) or other ingredients to make a lasagne, perhaps could soak and chop up to make tagliatelle if they have access to chopping boards, knives and a pan and hob to cook with
Bread - fair enough

Food banks ask for food where it can be cooked with a kettle and perhaps a hob at a stretch as that's all many people have, and also food that is long life so they can make use of it.

It seems like Ocado might be taking money from people wanting to help, and dumping food on food banks that they then don't' think need to pay to dispose of? But that could be a mistaken impression from an unfortunately written press release of course.

I'd check what they say - foodbanks usually don't take perishables but if it is a charity attached to a shelter then they will usually accept food that can be cooked up into meals to serve to their clients.

I found out via MN on a previous thread.

Agree with pp about the plastic bags.

I’ve done it a couple of times but it never promotes it under “Have you forgotten?”

I had no idea! What a great idea! I’ll be doing that from now. I do always add something to the food bank box when I visit a ‘real’ supermarket but I mainly use Ocado.

Thanks OP.

"Perhaps I am just naturally suspicious, but reading this it sounds like they donate surplus and unwanted food where customers have cancelled their orders, rather than what the food banks actually need?"

It's not like that. They partner with food banks, who can then place an order from Ocado to an agreed price ceiling (Ocado matches the amount from customers) in exactly the same way as any other customer. So they can put what they like in the trolley, and have a delivery slot that suits them.

It's useful because it is a reliable way to get fresh food in the quantities that are actually wanted that week. (Donations of fresh food at unpredictable times are actually quite hard too manage)

@PourquoiPas You've misunderstood. They double what you pay and they ALSO contribute food that's about to go out of date.

They say:

You give money, we give food. For every pound you give, we'll give at least two pounds' worth of groceries to food banks. So your donation counts for double or more.

Our food bank partners won't just be given boundless baked beans or piles of potatoes. Instead we'll give them exactly what's on their list, whether it be fresh veg, tea bags, or loaves of bread.

Here's how it works:

1. Choose how much you'd like to donate: £2.50, £5, or £10.

1. Add your donation to your trolley, do your weekly shop and check out as usual.

1. We'll match the value of the donation, by the same amount or more, and give products worth the total amount to food banks.

I think pourquoi has misunderstood this blog piece:

"With your help, a total of £19,609 has already been raised. Fantastic! That’s an incredible £9,804.50 from you, our customers, which we then matched in groceries.

"One reason we set up this scheme is to help our food bank partners get what they need, when they need it. They provide us with a wish list, which helps us select what groceries to supply, week by week.

"So what sort of products are on the wish list? Well, here’s a list of just a few of the groceries we’ve supplied over the past fortnight:" (goes on to list - which includes chicken, sausages etc, but clearly is not exhaustive)

So the food banks get what they want (ask for sausages, get sausages, but exactly which brand will be unknown until they arrive). It's not quite like a normal order, but much nearer to normal than to Ocado just dumping excess stick willy-nilly