By Jon Manning, Taranto Senior Sales Manager
I have recently had the enjoyable experience of helping to support a local foodbank, as part of a team effort for Taranto’s corporate giving programme.
Taranto’s sales team – Chris Murphy, our Commercial Director, Joel Hughes, Senior Sales Manager, and I spent a morning at volunteering at a local supermarket in support of North Liverpool Foodbank. It was a small, practical thing to do, and it turned out to be a good illustration of everything a corporate giving strategy is supposed to achieve.
“This was a really enjoyable morning spent meeting the general public and other volunteers. Everyone was brilliant and I would definitely help again. In future, I will always pick up an extra item when I go food shopping.”
A Morning at Asda, Walton, North Liverpool
The task itself was straightforward. We handed out shopping lists and asked shoppers if they would consider donating an item or two, looked after the collection bucket and took cash donations, received the food people handed over and sorted it into crates, and thanked everyone with a sticker on their way out. Nothing complicated, just three of us on our feet for a morning instead of on the phone or in meetings.
The response from shoppers was amazing. By the end of the morning, we had helped collect more than 663 kg of food and over £100 in donations, and the team added some extra bags of essentials on behalf of Taranto too. It meant the foodbank had enough items that it did not need to dip into its own funds to top up stock for that week. During the summer months, foodbank donations typically slow down, and combined with children being on holiday and needing to be fed at home, these additional donations make a real difference to the families who rely on this additional support.
Why This Connects to Strategy, Not Just Goodwill
It would be easy to file this under a nice thing the team did one morning and leave it there. But I think it’s important to highlight that this team effort was more than a well-meaning gesture.
- It gave time and effort, not just a donation, which is often what a foodbank or community group actually needs most.
- It was local, aimed at an organisation supporting people in need in Liverpool, where Taranto has its head office – giving the company closer ties to the local community.
- It built a relationship rather than a transaction, since North Liverpool Foodbank now knows Taranto as a business that turns up and helps.
- It was well timed, landing during the summer dip in donations when foodbank stock levels usually come under pressure.
None of that happens by accident. It happens because giving has become part of how our business plans its time and its budget, rather than something left to whoever happens to see an appeal online.
What This Meant For The Team
Beyond the numbers, what stuck with me was how good our team felt after volunteering. Meeting the public, working alongside the foodbank’s regular volunteers and seeing crates fill up in real time gave the three of us a far more direct sense of impact than writing a cheque ever could. It is also the kind of thing that changes small habits. I will now pick up an extra item every time I do my own food shopping, and I am sure that other colleagues with whom we have shared our experience will also do the same. I’ve had great feedback from colleagues who have read our intranet post about our volunteering morning.
The Takeaway
A single morning will not fix stock levels at a foodbank for good – and it was never meant to. What it did was prove was that, on a small scale, planned corporate giving that is local and sustained, does more good than giving that is occasional and reactive. For Taranto, this is one part of a wider approach to corporate giving that we intend to build on, and North Liverpool Foodbank will not be the last organisation we turn up for.
See more about Taranto’s Corporate Social Responsibility programme.
