Today, Saturday, November 20, 2021, the autumn round of the Food Collection (Sbírka Potravin) is taking place. Customers can donate food, groceries, or drugstore items in more than 1,300 stores all over the Czech Republic from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Food and drugs can also be donated until November 30 via e-shops. A record number of 1,300 shops will take part this year.
It is organized in all regions by the Czech Federation of Food Banks in cooperation with the Association of Trade and Tourism and the Association of Social Responsibility, while social partners like Charity Czech Republic, Salvation Army, NADĚJE and Silesian Diakonie also contribute. Large retail chains such as Albert, Billa, dm drogerie markt, Globus, Kaufland, Lidl, MAKRO, Penny Market, ROSSMANN and Tesco have joined the collection. People who want to contribute must visit their nearest store participating in the Food Collection and drop off a non-perishable food or drugstore item with their purchase.
People can also contribute from the comfort of their own homes until the end of November by purchasing packages worth between CZK 150 and 500, which online supermarkets Košík and Rohlik will deliver to wherever they are needed. The shops themselves will add 20% of food and hygiene products to the selected goods of every purchase, so that the help of their customers will reach even more people.
Selected food and drugstore items from the collection will go directly to non-profit organizations through regional food banks, which help, for example, abandoned seniors, single mothers, families in crisis, homeless people, or people with mental and physical disabilities.
An incredible 318 tons of food and drugstore items were collected during the Spring Food Collection. In addition, a record number of retailers will be participating this year.
BILLA has been a long-standing partner of the Food Collection, helping around 50 stores across the Czech Republic each year, but this year it plans to involve all of its 241 stores across the Czech Republic. Volunteers will be assisting people in 58 stores, while store employees will be collecting the donated goods.
“Even though the capacity of volunteers is limited, this year we want to listen to the wishes of customers who did not have the opportunity to contribute in earlier rounds of the collection, precisely because of the partial involvement of the chain’s stores. The autumn round of the Food Collection is very important and we will therefore enable them to help others through our entire store network,” said Dana Bratánková, spokesperson for BILLA ČR.
On Saturday, November 20, the Food Collection will also take place in all Globus hypermarkets. For this occasion, Globus will make shopping easier for its customers: it will discount food and drugstore products for the Collection and, for example, the My Globus mobile app will also offer suitable food items for donation.
“For the Collection, we have discounted a number of our private-label items by a fifth. At the same time, we will show goods suitable for donation on the My Globus mobile app so that customers can easily add them to their shopping list. The Food Collection logo will also be used to mark what is suitable for donation on the shelves. We will make shopping easier and faster for our customers so that they can now also conveniently donate food and groceries to those in need, “said Aneta Turnovská, spokesperson for Globus hypermarkets.