Co-op boss Steve Murrells has taken a 20% pay cut over the next three months to help the business kick start its Members’ Coronavirus Fund.
The convenience specialist will use the newly created fund to allow its 4.6 million members to donate unspent rewards from their membership scheme to food banks, frontline community causes and a funeral hardship fund during the heath emergency.
Co-op members currently have existing rewards totalling more than £30m that are yet to be spent.
The mutual’s members receive 5% back every time they purchase the Co-op’s own-brand products or services. The rewards are held in an online wallet to be redeemed against future purchases, but members will now have the option to donate those to the Co-op Members’ Coronavirus Fund.
Murrells said: “Millions of people are suffering financial hardship at the moment and so it felt right for me to offer to take this pay cut and directly support causes which are very important to me and close to my heart.
“One per cent of what our members spend already goes to local causes and now if they wish they can donate their 5% personal rewards to help lessen the impact the emergency is having on millions of our fellow citizens.”
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The Co-op’s grocery rivals Morrisons and Asda also stepped up their response to coronavirus over the Easter weekend.
Morrisons has set aside £500,000 over the next three months to offer additional protection, services and support to homeless people amid the coronavirus crisis.
It comes as data from the Institute of Fundraising revealed that there has been a 48% slump in voluntary income to charities since the outbreak of the virus.
Charities will be able to apply for funding to pay for hotel rooms for homeless people and to source PPE equipment, food and essential items.
Morrisons boss David Potts, who made a personal donation of £50,000 to a range of east Manchester charities for homeless and “invisible” families over the weekend, said: “Morrisons is committed to helping the most vulnerable in our society.
“We know that the coronavirus outbreak presents a particular risk to the homeless and we want to do our bit to help. This new fund will help charities doing vital work to care for the homeless at this critical time.”
Meanwhile, Asda said all 255 of its in-store pharmacies will offer free prescription deliveries to help get vital medication to customers who are self-isolating or less able to get to shops.
Asda started delivering prescriptions to existing Asda Pharmacy customers during the Easter weekend following a “huge increase” in prescriptions.
Asda’s superintendent pharmacist Faisal Tuddy said: “We want to do everything we can to help our customers during this time, so we felt it necessary to offer a free prescription delivery service to our customers who are self-isolating or less able to get into our stores.
“We are pleased to announce this service will be available from today and we hope to get the backlog of vital medication to our customers’ homes over the coming days.”
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