Southern Water’s 2023 foodbank charity campaign helps more families in need

Southern Water’s campaign to help thousands of families in need across the South of England is celebrating success on an unprecedented scale.

The tonnes of tins campaign which is in its second year, saw generous customers and staff  donate thousands of tins to foodbanks across Hampshire, Sussex and Kent.

The campaign involved Southern Water partnering with a variety of local community radio stations. These included V2 Radio, KMFM, Fiesta 95 FM and Awaaz FM, as well as logistics and foodbank partner charity UKHarvest who helped share the donations with more than 50 foodbanks, homelessness charities and refuges across our region.

Southern Water’s executive team further matched the amount donated to further support this year’ campaign by awarding an extra £30,000 to local foodbanks to continue supporting their incredible work. 

A total of 12.7 tonnes were donated through the five-week campaign, the equivalent weight of two African elephants, with some to spare – or 44,000 meals.

Alex Willumsen, Southern Water’s Community Partnerships and Programmes Lead, said: 

“The support our customers, employees and communities gave this campaign is absolutely incredible. This will make such a difference to families across our region who are struggling during this cost-of-living crisis.

“We’re delighted this brilliant campaign has helped even more people than last year. All of this was made possible through working collaboratively with radio stations and UK Harvest, we can’t thank them enough for their support.”

Sarah Morison, Partnerships lead at UKHarvest, said:

“UKHarvest are proud to be a logistics partner to this year’s Tonnes of Tins that successfully collected a vast amount of donated tins from across Hampshire Sussex and Kent.

“Like UKHarvest, this campaign has really helped support local food banks and other recipients all needing additional food supplies over the Summer.  Our team of drivers and volunteers worked closely with a huge number of drop off points at libraries and supermarkets to co-ordinate the donations.”