Tesco to donate almost £100,000 to mark Pride
31 May 2023
To celebrate this year’s Pride festival and support the LGBTQ+ community, Tesco will donate almost £100,000 across LGBTQ+ charities Fighting with Pride, Just Like Us, MindOut and Intersex Equality Rights UK, amongst others. In addition, the supermarket will be a Gold sponsor for London Pride and Partner for Brighton Pride, as well as supporting Pride events across the UK in Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Belfast, Norwich, Manchester, Glasgow, Dundee and Plymouth.
The supermarket is a longstanding supporter of Pride and the LGBTQ+ community, and in recent years has donated more than half a million pounds to charities supporting LGBTQ+ people – including Switchboard, Albert Kennedy Trust, Mermaids, Terrence Higgins Trust, Fighting With Pride and Bi Pride UK.
Tesco will also be donating a percentage of the sale price of the 2023 Home and Clothing Pride range available in-stores now, with products including mugs, cushions and throws, as well as flags, hats, glasses and face paints.
As a business, Tesco is committed to creating an inclusive workplace that celebrates the diversity of its colleagues and customers, working with its award-winning LGBTQ+ at Tesco network to support colleagues to be themselves. Tesco is a member of the Stonewall Global Diversity Champions Programme and this year was ranked 15th on the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index. It is also a member of the Open for Business coalition to support LGBTQ+ inclusion around the world.
Aled Griffiths (he/him), the Charity & Community Lead for LGBTQ+ at Tesco said: “Everyone’s welcome at Tesco, and we want everyone from all our LGBTQ+ communities to thrive at Tesco and feel like they belong. Pride is a real highlight for our colleagues, customers and our LGBTQ+ at Tesco network. I’m so proud that we are donating to these amazing organisations as part of our celebrations.”
Andrew Yaxley, Booker CEO and Executive Sponsor of LGBTQ+ at Tesco, said: “We’re really pleased to be able to support some fantastic LGBTQ+ charities again this year as part of our Pride celebrations and I’m delighted that we’re extended this to even more groups this year. At Tesco we’re standing proud together to support our LGBTQ+ communities across the country, and I’m looking forward to celebrating with our fantastic colleagues to make Pride 2023 a huge success.”
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS:
Tesco will donate £90,000 across charities including Fighting with Pride (registered charity number 1191863), Just Like Us (registered charity number 1165194), and MindOut (registered charity number 1140098).
Tesco will donate 5% of the sale price from each product in the 2023 Pride range across home and clothing, sold in Tesco stores and on tesco.com between 21st April 2023 and 10th September 2023, to SWITCHBOARD LGBT+ (registered charity number 296193 in England and Wales)
Erica Thornton, Interim CEO at MindOut said: “We are thrilled Tesco has chosen to support MindOut LGBTQ Mental Health Service for this years’ Pride season. MindOut is run by and for LGBTQ people with lived experience of mental health issues. We work to improve the mental health and wellbeing of LGBTQ communities and to make mental health a community concern. This generous donation and collaboration with Tesco will go towards the running of our free and confidential online chat service. Day by day MindOut is working toward our vision of a world where the mental health of LGBTQ communities is a priority, free from stigma, respected and recognised.”
Craig Jones MBE, Joint Chief Executive at Fighting with Pride, said: "We are thrilled to have our work with the Armed Forces LGBT+ community recognised and supported by Tesco. This year our charity is bringing back to military communities a group of veterans who met the challenges of service in our Armed Forces but who were poorly treated and many have struggled as a result of the historic ban on their service. Step by step, Fighting With Pride is helping make the Armed Forces family complete and Tescos support on that journey has been amazing”.
Amy Ashenden, interim CEO of Just Like Us, the LGBT+ young people's charity, said: “I am thrilled that Tesco is generously supporting Just Like Us, and glad that such an influential household name is helping to make sure that all LGBT+ young people can thrive. This partnership will support all of our programmes, including empowering LGBT+ young adults to build confidence and share their experiences in schools, as well as providing schools with the tools they need for their LGBT+ inclusion journeys.”