More than a third of grocery sector workers say they find it “difficult to cope with daily life”, according to the charity GroceryAid.
Demand for the charity’s services is “increasing significantly” amid the cost of living crisis and still-unacceptable levels of retail crime, according to GroceryAid’s 2025/2026 impact report.
However, the silver lining is that the charity has been able to extend its support to more than 19,200 workers thanks to the successful impact of its rebrand last year, which had raised awareness of the charity significantly, it said.
According to the findings over half of sector workers, 53%, said they’d experienced “tough times” over the past 18 months.
Their biggest needs were mental health, which impacted 32% of those coming to the charity for support. Financial difficulties (29%), physical health concerns (17%), relationship breakdown or bereavement (16%), and help with caring responsibilities were among the other major needs the charity reported.
GroceryAid launched a major rebrand in 2025 with the aim of growing its awareness within the sector. Built around the tagline of “help you’ve earned”, the charity aims to encourage more people to seek support from its financial grants, counselling services and 24/7 hotline.
The charity also changed the way it measures impact, and now directly records the number of people it has directly helped, rather than tracking overall “incidences of support” as it has done in previous reports.
Overall, the charity helped 19,200 individual workers. Of those, 8,162 individuals shared 8,395 financial grants, an increase of 3% on last year.
Just over 4,200 people sought support from GroceryAid’s 24-hour helpline, while 4,576 sought support through its website. The charity also increased the number of counselling sessions it put on by 85% during the year, helping 243 individuals.
The number of people seeking support with GroceryAid’s wider programme of legal support sessions, which includes legal services, consumer help, housing support and help with wills and probate, increased by 115%.
‘Encouraging’ growth brings new challenges
“The results in this report demonstrate that our strategy is beginning to deliver tangible outcomes as we turn our vision into action,” said GroceryAid CEO Kieran Hemsworth said in the report.
“During the final quarter of the year, our increased investment in raising awareness of GroceryAid and the support we provide has started to translate into more grocery colleagues accessing our services. We have seen encouraging growth in both financial grant applications and helpline usage, helping more people when they need us most – our ultimate measure of success,” Hemsworth said.
However, he warned that while the rise in people coming to support was welcome, it would bring new challenges for the charity.
“As we continue to raise awareness and reach more colleagues over the coming year, demand for our services will continue to grow. This makes it essential that we accelerate our fundraising ambitions to ensure we can meet that increasing need.”
The number of fundraising events put on by the charity increased 6% during the past year. It includes its flagship Barcode festival, which provides around 80% of GroceryAid’s funding as well as its GroceryAid Ball.
“As more people access our services, it is vital that we continue to strengthen our fundraising programme by engaging new supporters, diversifying our income streams, and encouraging our existing partners to maintain their outstanding support through event participation, donations and strategic partnerships,” Hemsworth said.
“Together, we can also continue to raise awareness of GroceryAid so that even more colleagues know where to turn when they need help.”
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