Sainsbury’s is reintroducing a scheme to top up the government-funded Healthy Start vouchers in a bid to help feed pregnant women and children in need this Christmas.
The supermarket is bringing back its £2 top-up vouchers to accompany the government’s own vouchers, which help low-income pregnant women and low-income families with a child under the age of four have access to nutritious food.
The Healthy Start scheme provides eligible families with a voucher worth £4.25 – up from £3.10 earlier this year following a lobby campaign spearheaded by footballer and food poverty activist Marcus Rashford.
Sainsbury’s is one of the partners of Rashford’s Child Food Poverty Task Force, a network of food businesses and charities working to tackle child food poverty.
“The fight to end child food poverty is far from over and I’m proud to see Sainsbury’s as one of the founding members of the Task Force financially commit to supporting users of the Healthy Start Scheme this winter,” said Rashford.
“This Christmas could be one of the toughest on record and these steps will inevitably alleviate some of the pressure on the shoulders of families up and down the country. A big thank you to all involved.”
With Sainsbury’s help, it is estimated that over half a million families will receive £6.25 worth of food per week this festive season.
The vouchers can be spent on products such as cows milk, infant formula milk, fresh, frozen and tinned fruit & veg as well as fresh, dried and tinned pulses.
Sainsbury’s previously ran the £2 top-up vouchers initiative from February to August this year. The coupons are available from now through to 7 January 2022.
Customers who use a Healthy Start paper voucher at checkout automatically receive a £2 coupon that can be spent during their next shop, until 21 January.
The move follows the launch of Sainsbury’s annual Help Brighten a Million Christmases campaign, which sees the supermarket match shoppers’ donations to charities up to the value of £1.5m.
The aim is to raise over £3m for organisations in need this Christmas, such as FareShare. The food redistribution charity told The Grocer it feared many could go hungry this Christmas because of the lorry driver crisis.
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