Spain’s Mercadona reinforces food donations to help combat critical situation triggered by COVID-19

MERCADONA has maintained its donations of essential products and strengthened its collaboration with food banks amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis.

The supermarket giant is delivering staple foods such as lamb, chicken, fruit, vegetables and breakfast products to the most needy.

Mercadona collaborates with the food banks all over Spain. In Andalucia’s capital Sevilla, the chain donates to six different soup kitchens.

Nacho Gonzalez, Mercadona’s External Relations Director of Sevilla, said in a statement: “The company, in its firm commitment to stand by the most disadvantaged citizens, is intensifying its ‘Responsible Model’ by collaborating with the food banks and social canteens in the province of Sevilla, where it donated 190 tonnes of food in 2019.

“The exceptional situation we are experiencing requires us to be flexible in our decisions and approaches, with one aim: to do what is necessary to respond to the demands of those most needy during this extraordinarily complex situation we are experiencing”.

Mercadona collaborates with over 210 soup kitchens and 60 food banks and other social entities throughout Spain and Portugal, to which it donates food daily and takes part in food collection campaigns.

In 2019, the company donated 9,218 tonnes of food to all of them, 9,100 in Spain and 218 in Portugal.

Mercadona also works with 32 foundations and occupational centres to decorate their stores with trencadis murals, made by over 1,000 people with different degrees of disability.

Another strategic line of Mercadona’s Social Responsibility Plan is environmental sustainability, with its own Environmental Management System, focused on logistic optimisation, energy efficiency and waste reduction.

The Spanish supermarket chain also works on the Sustainable Urban Distribution Project and the improvement of air quality in Spanish cities through using fuel efficient lorries and vans.

In addition, since 2011 Mercadona has been a partner of the United Nations Global Compact for the defence of fundamental values in the areas of human rights, labour standards, the environment and the fight against corruption.