- 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
- Part of Jaguar Land Rover’s ‘12 Days of Christmas’ campaign, which encourages employees to support their local community during the festive season
- A temporary food bank at Jaguar Land Rover Halewood was inundated with donations from employees
- The Solihull charity committee donated £3,000 to three food banks, chosen by employees, which will pay for up to 10,000 food items
- Two food banks in Wolverhampton have also been supported by food donations from staff at the EMC
Thursday 17 December 2020, Whitley, UK – 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.
December is always a busy time for us but this year we’ve had more and more people in need of our services. We were expecting to feed 11,000 people this year but in fact, due to Covid‑19, it will be around 60,000 – which is why we were getting desperately low on essential food items.
These are hard times for everyone but it’s so heart‑warming to see so many people come together from Jaguar Land Rover Halewood to support us again in our commitment.
Simon Cowie
Chief Operating Officer at Knowsley Food Bank
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.
Community is at the heart of Jaguar Land Rover. We are so proud of all our employees who have gone above and beyond to help support some of the most vulnerable people in our local communities throughout the year
Along with the food bank campaign, our employees have donated thousands of pounds to local charities affected by the coronavirus, volunteered for the NHS and helped to produce Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for hospitals and care homes during the pandemic this year.
The 12 Days of Christmas campaign is the perfect way to round off an incredibly difficult year for so many, with our employees continuing their support to our communities.