Moscow, 18 January 2020 – X5 Retail Group, a leading Russian food retailer, and Foodbank Rus announce the 2020 results of the Basket of Kindness project. The food drive initiatives in X5 stores and at корзинадоброты.рф raised over 267 tonnes of food products, an increase of almost 100 tonnes from 2019. 146.5 tonnes were collected in the Company’s retail stores, 45.3 tonnes were purchased with donations received through the initiative’s website, 75.9 tonnes were provided to health workers by X5. In 2020, Baskets of Kindness were handed over to 142,092 people, including children, elderly living alone, disadvantaged and vulnerable residents, and medical practitioners.
Over the year, the project received donations from 66,500 customers in over 1,300 Pyaterochka, Perekrestok and Karusel stores in 70 cities and six settlements across Russia. More than 2,000 volunteers from Foodbank Rus and 200 retail chains’ employees took part in organising the charitable campaigns and marathons.
The pandemic and lockdowns in Russian cities called for tweaks to the project’s implementation – in spring, an ad hoc campaign was launched on the initiative’s website to buy food for people aged over 60, who were advised to self-isolate. On top of that, X5 Retail Group stepped in to deliver food to hospitals for the medical personnel working with COVID-19 patients. 79 hospitals in 17 regions and a total of over 70,000 doctors received 75.9 tonnes of food.
In 2020, the Basket of Kindness project helped support animal shelters: 21 tonnes of pet food were sent to around 3,500 dogs and cats in ten shelters of Moscow and the Moscow Region, Rostov-on-Don, Kazan, Samara, and other regions.
X5 Retail Group and Foodbank Rus launched the Basket of Kindness project in 2015. X5 pioneered food drives among Russian retailers, creating and promoting local food aid infrastructure. This enables customers to buy and donate food in-store to support people in need in their local communities. The project has been operating an online charity store at корзинадоброты.рф since November 2017, with over 205,000 users having visited the site so far.