Arla Foods working with UK charities
Butter, cheese, yogurt and milk that should have been destined for UK cafes and restaurants will now be going into homes of some of the most vulnerable families in the country as Arla Foods has partnered with three food charities.
Free meals for nurses, doctors and staff at hospitals and food vouchers for vulnerable families across the country are part of the donations that Arla Foods will contribute to through partnerships with FareShare, Food4Heroes, and Magic Breakfast.
Milk, cheese, yogurts and butter are being donated to Fareshare, which redistributes to charities and community groups helping the most vulnerable at this time. Arla is donating butter, cheese and other dairy items to Food4Heroes.
Arla’s products will provide enough dairy for 4m slices of Lurpak buttery toast and 1.4m slices of pizza through Arla Pro mozzarella.
Working with Magic Breakfast, a national charity that gives healthy breakfasts for vulnerable children, Arla will provide enough Arla Cravendale milk for 4.8m bowls of cereal over the next 12 weeks (40,000 bottles per week) to help those children most at risk of missing out on a nutritious start to the day access the food they need.
Arla has already committed more than 35% of its milk produced at its site in Settle, North Yorkshire, to the Government’s care packages for those needed to be shielded. Arla will expand its partnership with FareShare whilst also supporting the charity Food4Heroes, supplying products to those most in need and NHS workers. These donations have contributed in the production of 27,000 meals by Food4Heroes to the NHS every week.
Milk, cheese, yogurts and butter are being donated to Fareshare, which redistributes to charities and community groups helping the most vulnerable at this time. Arla is donating butter, cheese and other dairy items to Food4Heroes.
Jonathan Dixon, vice president of foodservice for Arla Foods UK, said, “The challenges of coronavirus are hitting the dairy industry hard with a surplus of milk now being produced on farms across the country. To ensure Arla milk isn’t wasted, where there are temporarily less foodservice outlets to sell dairy products into, we are redistributing them to where they are needed most; to those being shielded, those on the front line at our hospitals, and the children who are in need of nutritious products to help stay healthy at this time.”
The company has already donated 175,000 pints of organic milk through FareShare and other charity organizations, as well as 110,000 cans of Starbucks Doubleshot and 15,000 bottles of Arla Protein to hospitals for NHS key workers.
TH Group donates 1m cups of milk
Vietnamese dairy producer TH Group has donated 1m glasses of fresh milk to Vietnamese people quarantined due to COVID-19 and those working against the epidemic.
TH Group partnered with The Vietnamese Fatherland Front on March 10 to give products to nurses, doctors, and those who are in isolation due to COVID-19 in Vietnam. The program has now reached its 1m target.
TH Groups is also supporting frontline health workers throughout the country by donating ventilators to hospitals and cash for buying personal protective equipment for the medical workforce. So far, the group has donated a total worth of VND15bn ($642,000) for the fight against COVID-19 in Vietnam.
"TH Group not only presents one million glasses of milk, it will also stand ready to co-operate with other socio-political organizations to fight the epidemic," Tran Thi Nhu Trang, representative of TH Group and director of the group's Fund for Vietnamese people's health, said.
Shaken Udder gives products to key workers
In the UK, milkshake producer, Shaken Udder, has been donating products.
Over the last four weeks, the Essex-based firm has delivered around 15,000 bottles of its milkshakes to hospitals, hospices, fire stations, schools, care homes and police stations across Suffolk, Essex and Devon. It has also donated 7,200 bottles to Fairshare.
Many of the donations have gone to local key workers in places such as Ipswich Hospital, St Helena's Hospice in Colchester, Gray's Fire Station, Broomfield Hospital, Basildon A&E and Colchester General Hospital.
Califia Farms donating product
Another US plant-based beverages company, Califia Farms, has pledged to provide 1m servings of beverages to frontline healthcare workers and other communities in need through the COVID-19 crisis.
The pledge is in addition to the company's existing donation program and will extend through December 2020. Califia has already provided nearly 350,000 servings of its plant-based beverages since March 9, 2020.
"Califia Farms is privileged to be part of an industry that can help alleviate even a small amount of the stress created by this pandemic by providing great-tasting, nutritious products," said Greg Steltenpohl, CEO and founder of Califia Farms.
"We're grateful to Feed the Frontlines NYC and other groups who quickly activated their network to help sustain our healthcare heroes and other vulnerable populations. By standing together as a community, we will emerge from this moment stronger and more resilient."
Feed the Frontlines NYC has prepared and delivered 60,000 free meals to healthcare professionals across New York City while bringing 99 restaurant workers back on the job. They are delivering hot, individually packaged meals to 35 hospitals, including NYU Langone Health, NYC Health + Hospitals, Mount Sinai, New York - Presbyterian, Montefiore Medical Center and Manhattan VA Medical Center.
Califia is also working with Feeding America, LA Regional Food Bank, Meals on Wheels, public school districts and other partners to deliver beverages to those in need. Califia is providing product donations to local coffee shops in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities, and using its social channels to spotlight baristas and share how people can support their local shops.
Kate Farms products
Kate Farms, a plant-based nutritional formula company, is collaborating with Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health to distribute donated plant-based meal replacement shakes to Native American communities throughout the Navajo Nation, including elders in Tuba City, Chinle, Crown Point, Shiprock, and Fort Defiance.
The donation includes 2,352 meals that will be distributed through the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health.
As these communities grapple with COVID-19, the Center is delivering food, water, and other critical supplies to families through its community health worker model and in partnership with tribal leaders.
As part of its COVID-19 relief packages, the Center is including Kate Farms organic, plant-based meal replacement shakes to deliver key nutrients to elders at most risk.
"We commend organizations like the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health for proactively serving Native American elders and their families," said John Hommeyer, chief experience officer, Kate Farms.
"We are donating our formulas to partners who can deliver nourishment directly, quickly, and to the most at-risk. We hope other companies like ours step up likewise to support Native Americans in underserved and frequently ignored communities."
Kate Farms is donating $1m of its meal replacement shakes to organizations such as the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health that are able to quickly and directly serve people who are at the highest levels of risk in the pandemic.
Silk helping Feeding America
Plant-beverage brand Silk is making a $150,000 donation in the US to Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, which the company said will represent 1.5m meals.
“These difficult times have posed unique challenges to all Americans, but for people who struggle with hunger, access to food is an ongoing struggle,” said Nikki Drevich, Feeding America’s interim chief development officer.
