Jaguar Land Rover employees across the UK have come together to support local food banks in need. Teams from the Halewood, Solihull, Whitley and Engine Manufacturing Centre (EMC) sites have donated more than 16,000 items of food and other essentials this Christmas.
Jaguar Land Rover employees are helping feed thousands of families across the UK this Christmas through a major donation drive to support local food banks.
Research by food bank charity The Trussell Trust indicates that 52%* of households that needed support from a food bank since the start of the pandemic, had not used the service previously. With close to one hundred thousand new households in need across their network of food bank centres, this increased the food parcels needed by 61%*, equating to approximately six parcels given out every minute between October to December.
The effort is part of Jaguar Land Rover’s ‘12 Days of Christmas’ campaign, which encourages employees to support their local community during the festive season. Teams based in Halewood, Solihull, Whitley and the EMC have collectively donated over 16,000 food items.
Jay Round, Production Worker at Halewood, decided to launch a ‘food bank takeover’ for Knowsley Food Bank after discovering it was in desperate need of essentials in the build-up to Christmas.
Colleagues converted one of the site’s People Centres, normally used for events and communications support, into a temporary food bank for two days.
The team at Halewood made a collective employee pledge to donate a minimum of 1,200 items – which they achieved within a few hours. In total, employees have donated more than 6,000 items in addition to cash donations which will help feed hundreds of local families in need.
In Solihull, employees have donated £3,000 to three food banks: Renewal Helping Hands in Solihull, Bethany Community Outreach and Sparkhill Foodbank in Birmingham. The money came from its employees’ charity fund, which will help towards 10,000 food and essential items.
The donation is part of Solihull’s employee pledge to donate £50,000 to good causes this year to celebrate 50 years of Range Rover.
Staff at Jaguar Land Rover’s EMC filled up an on-site donation point in support of two local food banks, the Elias Mattu Foundation and Excel Church Food Bank which both received a generous delivery of 248 food items in total.
In Whitley, employees donated items to The Trussell Trust in Coventry which will help towards feeding 80 families over the Christmas period.
