Aldi Ireland has donated €1,000 worth of gift vouchers to University College Cork (UCC) Students’ Union food bank in response to its national appeal. The Students’ Union ran out of supplies just 50 minutes after opening with Students’ Union representatives attributing the high demand to rising rental prices, leaving many students struggling to afford their weekly shop.
Aldi is giving shoppers the opportunity to donate towards UCC students struggling to afford food on campus by rolling out new food donation points across its stores in Cork City. The participating stores include Glanmire, Blackrock, Passage West, Douglas Village, Grange, Ballyphehane, Wilton, Elysian, Mayfield, Blackpool and the two stores in Ballincollig.
Commenting, Colin Breslin, Aldi Regional Managing Director said: “Aldi is deeply involved in the local community here in Cork and so following the national appeal by UCC’s Students’ Union, we are pleased to be able to offer support to students through our donation. As well as this, we are encouraging the wider Cork community to come together to assist students facing food insecurity by availing of our new food donation points across Cork stores. ”
UCC Students’ Union President Asha Woodhouse commented: “I want to thank Aldi for their generous contribution to our food bank appeal. We are delighted to receive a donation of €1,000 worth of Aldi vouchers to help us provide UCC students with much needed food supplies. Food insecurity is a huge concern for many students on our campus. These vouchers will allow us to provide them with essential, non-perishable foods with a longer shelf-life.”
Aldi works to tackle many societal issues including food insecurity and food waste. Aldi has a long-running partnership with the social enterprise, FoodCloud. Since partnering with FoodCloud in 2014, Aldi has donated over 2.3 million meals to over 344 charities saving the charity sector over €2.9 million. In 2020, Aldi became the first supermarket to make a non-surplus food donation to FoodCloud, to help alleviate the huge pent-up demand for FoodCloud’s services as a result of Covid-19. The partnership continues to grow with Aldi expanding its donations to a larger number of communities in 2021.
UCC Students' Union (SU) is the representative body of the over 22,000 students registered in UCC, supporting and representing UCC students both locally and nationally. The SU launched their food bank back in 2019 however had to close it when the pandemic hit. With students returning to campus for the academic year, they saw a rise in the financial hardship students were experiencing coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic and felt it necessary to reopen their food bank once again to their students.
