Asda backs down over food bank ban

Supermarket chain Asda has announced a policy U-turn that will see the return of permanent collection points for food banks and other charities in all its UK stores. After the company’s initial decision to remove the collection points, 88,000 people signed a petition hosted by the campaigning organisation 38 Degrees and a number of MPs raised concerns. Asda’s rival Tesco also announced it was installing 100 new collection points in its stores. Asda will also retain its Chosen by You scheme, whereby customers use green tokens to choose local charities to benefit from the supermarket’s donations. The scheme had been scheduled to end on 1 March. Asda has more than 525 UK stores and is owned by US retailer Walmart.

The supermarket chain Asda has announced a policy U-turn that will see the return of permanent collection points for food banks and other charities in all its UK stores.

The move comes after the Guardian broke the news that the collection points were being removed across Britain. Some food banks said the move would threaten 25% of their supplies, while the Trussell Trust food bank network warned of losses of food of up to a third.

A source inside the company said that news of Asda’s change-of-heart began to circulate internally on Wednesday 24 February. The Guardian has seen material from Asda’s internal social network The Green Room indicating disquiet and regret among staff about the removal of the collection points and welcoming their return.

A briefing released to staff on Thursday evening said: “We are reinstating all previously existing unmanned collections in store, eg Guide Dogs for the Blind collections, food banks, Marie Curie collection trays. This is about reinviting existing charity partners back into store, not about actively going out and recruiting any new unmanned collections at this stage.”

Asda has more than 525 UK stores and is owned by the US retailer Walmart. In response to its initial policy change, 88,000 people signed a petition hosted by the campaigning organisation 38 Degrees and a number of MPs raised concerns. While this ad hoc campaign took shape, Asda’s rival Tesco announced it was installing 100 new collection points in its stores.

Opposition to Asda’s decision was expressed by the mayor of Liverpool, Labour’s Joe Anderson, in an open letter to Asda’s chief executive Andy Clarke.

Anderson said he and his extended family were all regular shoppers at Asda stores, but the chain’s decision meant “we can no longer consider being customers of yours, and I will publicly urge Liverpool residents and others to do the same”.

In response to Asda’s U-turn, Anderson said: “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. A lot of people aren’t going to take their shopping home and say: ‘I’m going to take these three tins down to the local food bank’. I lacked any understanding of why Asda made the decision: it was no skin off their nose.”

Asda, which recently announced its worst quarterly sales figures to date, denied that the change had anything to do with an ongoing programme of cost-cutting and said it was channelling an additional £2m in charitable funding through the national Asda Foundation.

Its initial statements about the policy change said the chain was as open as ever to charitable collections, but it thought it was essential that “volunteers are on hand to talk to customers and explain where their donations are going”. Food banks said they would have serious difficulties finding volunteers to spare.

The briefing confirmed another U-turn: the retention of Asda’s Chosen by You scheme, whereby customers use green tokens to choose local charities to benefit from the supermarket’s donations. It had been scheduled to end on 1 March.

Asda said: “We made some changes to our community programme around unmanned collections in the belief that this would benefit the many local good causes who collect in our stores.

“On this occasion, our customers and colleagues have told us they understand our intentions, but prefer us to continue to give charities more options to maximise donations. We are therefore reinstating unmanned collection points.

“Asda plays an important role in the communities we serve and we look forward to continuing to support many more local charities and good causes.”

Bob Ashford, the chair of trustees of the Fair Frome charity in Somerset, said: “I’m absolutely delighted. From the beginning, the decision didn’t make sense. It was an arrangement that benefited Asda, in terms of customers buying more goods – and it benefited charities and people who use food banks because it gave them a regular supply of food.

“We’re a very small charity and we were one of the first to raise this. And now we’ve seen a major national store change its policy.”

Amanda Bloomfield, the chief executive of the Gatehouse Foodbank in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, said: “Members of the public approached us and talked about all the media coverage of Asda’s decision,.

“They were unhappy about it, and they wanted to know why it had been made. I’m sure they’ll be glad to know that their voices have had an influence.”