Dairy company Arla Foods is working in partnership with a number of charities offering support to those in need during the Covid-19 pandemic, while also offering free meals to NHS staff and key workers.

Working alongside FareShare, Food4Heroes, and Magic Breakfast, Arla will provide free meals for nurses, doctors and staff at hospitals and food vouchers for vulnerable families across the country.

Arla’s products will also provide enough dairy for 4 million slices of Lurpak buttery toast and 1.4 million slices of pizza with Arla Pro mozzarella.

Working with Magic Breakfast, a national charity that gives healthy breakfasts for vulnerable children, Arla will provide enough Arla Cravendale milk for 4.8million bowls of cereals over the next 12 weeks ensuring those children most at risk of missing out on a nutritious breakfast.

Parent company to brands like Anchor, Cravendale and Lurpak, Arla has already committed over 35% of its milk produced at its site in Settle, North Yorkshire, to the Government’s care packages for those needed to be shielded.

“Whilst we are delighted to be able to provide this support in these difficult times, we do so knowing that there are many dairy farmers being severely impacted by the loss of business from foodservice companies.”

Arla will expand its partnership with FareShare whilst also supporting the charity Food4Heroes, supplying products to those most in need and NHS workers. These donations have contributed in the production of 27,000 meals by Food4Heroes to the NHS every week.

Jonathan Dixon, vice president of foodservice for Arla Foods UK, said: “The challenges of coronavirus are hitting the dairy industry hard with a surplus of milk now being produced on farms across the country. To ensure Arla milk isn’t wasted, where there are temporarily less foodservice outlets to sell dairy products into, we are redistributing them to where they are needed most; to those being shielded, those on the front line at our hospitals, and the children who are in need of nutritious products to help stay healthy at this time.”

He added: “Whilst we are delighted to be able to provide this support in these difficult times, we do so knowing that there are many dairy farmers being severely impacted by the loss of business from foodservice companies. We hope that those who can afford to do so, continue to support Britain’s farming communities at this time by buying delicious dairy for their home cooked meals.”

Michael Shields, commercial manager at FareShare, said: “A huge thank you to Arla for their generous donation of UHT milk, cheese, yogurts and butter to support our charities and community groups in this time of crisis. Over the last month we’ve seen almost 500 new charities sign up to receive food from FareShare so our need has never been greater. Arla’s donation has been essential in enabling us to continue tackling hunger across the UK.”