When food banks experienced a shortage, Asda cooked up a new set of solutions.
When I worked for Asda in the U.K., we asked customers, “What’s the most important problem we can help solve in your community?”
Their response: Food Insecurity. Like many seemingly thriving cultures, there was a hidden prevalence of under-nutrition caused by economic hardship.
At Asda, we had a strong partnership with Fair Share and The Trussell Truss, two big organizations in Britain that served food banks with food and services.
Like many seemingly thriving cultures, there was a hidden prevalence of under-nutrition caused by economic hardship.
We were doing a lot of good, but we hadn’t embarked on anything BIG.
I asked the two CEOs, Lindsey Boswell and Emma Revie, “What is the biggest outcome we could achieve together toward solving the problem of Food Insecurity?” Their answer was swift, “We need to get fresh food to food banks, but we have this huge barrier in that there is no refrigeration through the Food Depots.”
So we set out on a big, three year quest to fight hunger and create change by putting refrigeration into all of the Food Depots in the U.K.
It was a monumental task, costing millions of Pounds and the creativity and ingenuity to solve numerous challenges.
But we used the same process that would later become bigQUEST, and we achieved our goal.
We were doing a lot of good, but we hadn’t embarked on anything BIG.
Today 24 million fresh meals are delivered to the U.K. food pantries thanks to the partnership, engagement and shared vision of three organizations pulling together every day under the banner, “Fight Hunger, Create Change.” Fair Share CEO Lindsey Boswell said, “What Asda has done to reduce food insecurity in Britain has made the biggest impact since the introduction of the National Lottery.”
Would you like to find out how you can build partnerships across multiple stakeholders to produce bigger opportunities? Check out bigQUEST and request a free consultation today.
Meet the team and see the results of Asda's bigQUEST success. Asda employee, Lynda Cole, said, “I feel incredibly proud to be able to work for a company that’s going to make positive and revolutionary change.”
