Moscow, 1 October 2018 – X5 Retail Group N.V. ("X5" or the "Company"), a leading Russian food retailer (LSE and MOEX ticker: FIVE), and the Rus Food Foundation announce the results of a city-wide Basket of Kindness food marathon in honour of the Day of Elderly Persons. The event, which collected 7.1 tonnes of food, was held on 29 September and involved 240 Pyaterochka, Perekrestrok and Karusel stores in Samara. The Foundation’s volunteers and social workers have already started to distribute the 1,207 food baskets to senior citizens in need across the Samara region.
The event was organised and run with the involvement of some 190 Rus Food Foundation volunteers and approximately 300 employees of X5 stores. The food marathon was supported by the Ministry of Social, Demographic and Family Policy of the Samara region, the Samara Eparchy and the My Dears Charitable Foundation. The Basket of Kindness initiative will provide aid to low-income senior citizens in nearly all municipalities across the Samara region.
During 2018, X5 and the Rus Food Foundation, Russia’s first food bank, have already held two city-wide food marathons. The first was on 3 March in Kazan and the second was on 21 April in Yekaterinburg. These two events collected a total of 24 tonnes of food for 4,300 senior citizens in need. Another city-wide food marathon will be held in Moscow in December. In addition, from 15 August to 15 October, the official website of the Basket of Kindness project (корзинадоброты.рф) is hosting the first online marathon to support elderly people in the Nizhny Novgorod region.
Previously, Basket of Kindness collected food donations from just several stores in each city. In 2017, X5 and the Rus Food Foundation held an event at 803 Pyaterochka, Perekrestok and Karusel stores, gathering some 80 tonnes of non-perishable food items. This aid was provided to 6,000 low-income families and seniors from various Russian regions.