Woolworths has announced that all profits from sales in fresh departments at its supermarkets this Saturday August 11, will be donated to Rural Aid’s Buy a Bale appeal to support drought-affected farmers.
Profits from the fruit and veg section, meat, chilled section, bakery and deli at supermarkets nationwide will help fund more stock livestock feed for farmers, household supplies and counselling services.
Last month, Woolworths announced a $1.5 million donation to Rural Aid along with in-store fundraising to support this cause.
Rural Aid founder and CEO, Charles Alder said, “We’ve been overwhelmed by the response of the Woolworths store teams and customers over the past week. Since the supermarket came on board as a partner with their initial $1.5 million donation and opened up fundraising channels in their stores, we’ve been able to provide more certainty to hundreds of farmers who have reached out to us in urgent need of feed for their livestock. Additionally we’ve been able to increase vital counselling services available for farming families in regional communities.”
He said that this Saturday’s donation will have a “significant impact on the long term support we are going to be able to provide farmers in drought affected regions.”
Woolworths managing director Claire Peters said it has been great to see customers and staff get behind the cause.
“In less than a week, our customers have already donated in excess of $600,000 for Rural Aid’s Buy a Bale appeal through our checkouts nationwide. This generosity is making a real difference in rural communities, and has inspired us to build on our support of Rural Aid’s vital work,” she said in a statement today.
Customers can donate to the Buy a Bale appeal at any Woolworths, Woolworths Metro or Woolworths Petrol store, as well as Woolworths Online.
Coles supermarkets recently pledged to provide A$5 million in grants and interest-free loans from its Nurture Fund as well as in-store fundraising to help farmers across Australia combat drought.
All funds raised at Coles checkouts will be provided to the Country Women’s Association to provide support to drought-affected families to help cover household expenses such as school expenses and food, medical, electricity and water bills.
Coles managing director John Durkan said that many staff in drought affected communities have heard harrowing stories from customers.
“Our store teams in these communities have helped by collecting donations of non-perishable food or providing gift cards but we wanted to take action at a national level to help more families facing hardship right now and to help farmers to combat drought in the future,” he said.
The supermarket giant is also supporting its grassfed beef suppliers by buying their livestock as grain fed beef if the farmers have been forced to feed grain to their cattle during the drought.
Discount grocer ALDI said it is supporting drought affected farmers on a community level through food donations and fundraising from stores. The German retailer is also in discussions with national parties.
Inside FMCG has also contacted Metcash to ask if it had similar fundraising plans for the drought crisis but did not receive a response in time for publication.
