Supporting The Community
As well as raising over £30 million for charity to date, colleagues actively champion their local communities through a range of charity partnerships, supported by an annual fundraising week. The business has committed to raising £1 million a year for the Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation (IFCF).
A partnership between Iceland and The Big Lunch brought together millions of people in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Through the Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation...
raised to help beat dementia and 30,000 colleagues enrolled as Dementia Friends
hours of nature engagement for children through the Backyard Nature campaign
life-saving campaigns developed, 'Schools Against Sepsis' and 'Sepsis Savvy'
children and young people supported in 2021/22 through our lead partnership of the Action For Children Secret Santa campaign
local charities supported by stores in 2021
The Big Lunch
Iceland partnered with The Big Lunch in 2021, 2022 and 2023 – the UK’s annual big date to celebrate and give thanks to neighbours and communities. Launched in 2009 by the Eden Project, the nationwide event takes place every year in June.
The Big Lunch connects people and encourages friendlier, safer neighbourhoods where people start to share more. Across the UK, more than six million people take part each year.
IFCF-Funded Activity
Action for Children
In 2021, Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation (IFCF) became lead partner of Action For Children’s ‘Secret Santa’ campaign. We made every single one of our team a Secret Santa by donating £280,000, which represented £10 on behalf of each of our 28,000 amazing colleagues. In December 2021, we continued our lead partnership and once again gave £10 on behalf of each of our colleagues, donating a further £300,000 to create an Action for Children ‘Iceland Winter Fund’.
In order to help the charity continue their vitally needed support work, we have nominated Action for Children as our charity of the year in 2022.
The Sepsis Trust
IFCF worked with the UK Sepsis Trust to create two campaigns – ‘Schools against Sepsis’ and the ‘Sepsis Savvy’ campaign. These saw all Iceland colleagues educated on the signs and symptoms of sepsis, alongside a community awareness campaign on 90 million Iceland milk bottles. A collaborative approach was taken to developing resources to encourage other organisations to get involved and spread awareness.
Dementia Awareness and Research
IFCF’s longstanding partnerships with dementia charities have provided £10 million to help establish the new UK Dementia Research Institute, £5 million to support vital research projects, and seen 30,000 Iceland colleagues enrolled as Dementia Friends – with the intention of Iceland being the UK’s most dementia-friendly retailer.
Backyard Nature
IFCF worked with Iceland colleagues and inner-city children to develop and launch the Backyard Nature campaign. The campaign, run by ActionFunder (then called Semble), helps children (and their grown-ups) to make a real difference to the planet by providing them with the tools they need to protect their own patch of nature – even if they live in the heart of a city. It has signed up more than 15,000 children as Nature Guardians and inspired 750,000 hours of nature engagement.
Surfers Against Sewage – Fighting Plastic Pollution
IFCF’s partnership with Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) has seen thousands of people coming together in their communities to rid our beaches, riverbanks, mountains and streets of plastic pollution, in the UK’s biggest ever environmental clean-up event. The first Big Spring Beach Clean: Summit to Sea took place in April 2019, with more than 45,000 volunteers joining over 750 community clean up events and collecting almost 72 tonnes of marine plastic.
IFCF pledged to continue as Lead Partner of the ‘Million Mile Clean’ in 2021, 2022 and 2023, with the first year seeing 140,000 volunteers collecting 320 tonnes of pollution in 4,000 community cleans. It also partnered with SAS to sponsor the UK’s first ever Plastic Free Awards in November 2019, continuing in 2021.
Find out more about the Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation (IFCF) here.