The Worshipful the Mayor of Boston, Councillor Barrie Pierpoint and the Mayoress Pamela Love, supported the local supermarket when it joined forces with volunteers from Boston Food Bank to hold an in-store collection drive in its store entrance between Friday 13th June and Sunday 15th June asking for food and essential toiletries, with volunteers in the Trussell network encouraging anyone who can afford it to donate an extra item or two.
The initiative aimed to raise awareness and collect donations to support individuals experiencing hunger.
Shoppers were able to pick up branded shopping lists helping to signpost them to which items are needed the most to support local people in need.
The Mayor and Mayoress met foodbank volunteers, chatted to shoppers as they entered the store and gave information out to them on what groceries the Boston Food Bank required donating. They also met the store manager and many staff too.
The Mayor and Mayoress bought personally £50 worth of essential groceries from Asda and donated them to the Boston Foodbank as their community contribution.
Asda Boston’s Community Champion, Stephen Bromby, said: “With people struggling to afford things that we all need, food banks are playing a more important role than ever. We’ve had a customer collection trolley in larger Asda stores for shoppers to donate all year round since 2018, but these donations over our three-day collection are crucial to supporting the local community and we are delighted this food drive encouraged a positive increase in donations.
“I am so thankful for the donations made by our customers and I’m always so proud that they wish to help the people in their communities who need the most support.”
In the last year, the food collected through the Lister Way supermarket for the Boston Food Bank provided the equivalent of 9,363 meals for local people.
Figures released in May by Trussell, a network of 1,400 food bank locations and 36,000 volunteers, reveal that 2.9 million emergency food parcels were provided to people facing hardship across the UK between April 2024 and March 2025, with more than a million of these provided for children. This is equivalent to one parcel every 11 seconds and a 51% increase compared with five years ago.[1]
Stuart Kenny, store manager of Boston’s Asda store added: “As the cost-of-living crisis continues, food banks are telling us more people in communities across the country will be pushed deeper into poverty. We’re delighted to hold the food drive which will
help us make sure families can get emergency support from food banks this summer. Our customers could make a real difference to their local food bank by donating food and toiletries at any of the local collection points.”
The generous donations, which filled 49 crates and weighed a massive 821kg, from the food collection drive will help Boston Food Bank to continue to provide three days’ nutritionally balanced emergency food parcels and support to local people who are referred to them in crisis. The volunteers also collected £64.15 in cash donations.
Councillor Pierpoint said: “I would like to personally thank each and every shopper who has given so generously to support people with food donations at the Boston Asda store.
“As Mayor, I know how kind and generous people in this town and borough are and IT is reflected through this collection at Asda. Thanks to your generosity, people who are in need of food and essentials for themselves and their families have been helped and
supported at a time when it is most needed. Thank you to each and every one of you.”