Confusion as food bank donation trolley ‘removed’ from Sheffield supermarket

Pat Beaumont, 72, from Ecclesfield, noticed the trolley was not available at the Sainsbury’s store in Wadsley Bridge after trying to drop off her usual weekly food bank donation on Friday, November 13.

The pensioner says she has shopped with the supermarket chain numerous times during the pandemic, both online and instore, and said the trolley was ideal as she has been limiting where she visits due to the ongoing threat of coronavirus.

After asking a member of staff, she was told the superstore on Clay Wheels Lane would not have a donation trolley until after Christmas due to Covid-19 – yet Pat claims a trolley for toy donations remained in situ.

She said: “If it’s to do with Covid I can’t understand why the toy trolley is still there. This area needs the food bank trolley, we buy all that food and it is usually full. There was even a woman after me who had bought stuff to donate. A lot of people care about it.

"People are so desperate now, even in my own family people have lost jobs. They haven’t gone money coming in, people who you would think would never even use a food bank are having to use them. It’s a different kettle of fish now.

"The member of staff who I asked did end up taking the stuff off me but I don’t know what they’ll do with it. I would have thought on the lead up to Christmas that people might put nicer things in too. I just can’t understand it at all.”

Sainsbury’s has a long-running food bank donation scheme and although the front of store donation point had been moved from its Wadsley Bridge site, it said customers could still donate by passing items to staff.

A spokesperson for the supermarket chain said: “The food bank at our Sheffield Wadsley Bridge store is still available for customers to donate items. We are advising customers to pass their donations to colleagues, who will be able to transfer items into the food bank for them.”

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