Moscow, 21 February 2017 – X5 Retail Group N.V. ("X5" or the "Company"), a leading Russian food retailer (LSE ticker: "FIVE"), announces that in 2016, around 20,000 of its customers donated more than 27.5 tons of food to people in need as part of the ‘Basket of Kindness’ programme, which is organised jointly by X5, Mars and the "Rus" Food Foundation (a member of the Global Foodbanking Network). In 2016, the Basket of Kindness programme was rolled in 200 Pyaterochka, Perekrestok and Karusel stores in 18 cities across Russia. In 2017, the organisers of the project plan to expand the geographic reach of the project by two times and to recruit more than 1,000 volunteers.
Stephan Ducharme, Member of the "Rus" Food Foundation Board of Trustees and X5’s Chairman of Supervisory Board said:
"We have successfully created the necessary infrastructure, together with our consumers and partners, to provide food aid to people in need. Thanks to these efforts, about 3,000 people who were in critical need were able to receive food aid via the Basket of Kindness programme. Considering the efficiency with which we can provide targeted support to people in need, and the active involvement of our customers, we intend to develop further our food bank projects as we view this as a key part of our corporate social responsibility efforts."
Moscow led the way with about 8.5 tons of food collected, including cereals, cooking oil, canned food, pasta, tea and other essential products. Other significant contributions came from Lipetsk (3.7 tons), Kazan (2.7 tons) and Yekaterinburg (2 tons), while St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Chelyabinsk and Tambov collected 1.5 tons each. The "Rus" Food Foundation received over 30 tons of food during the year, and X5 did its part by topping up food donations collected by volunteers.
Project volunteers include X5 and Mars employees, as well as "Rus" Food Foundation representatives and recipients of food aid. The initiative attracted more than 500 volunteers, making it possible to run the scheme in 200 stores.
X5 pioneered food aid in Russia with the launch in 2015 of Basket of Kindness, which created and continues to develop local food aid infrastructure. This programme allows customers to buy and donate food in-store to help people who are in critical need of support.