Lidl has launched a new commitment to support five million people across Great Britain by 2030 through targeted programmes addressing food insecurity, financial support, children’s health and employment.

The Better Futures initiative was announced at Lidl’s annual Lidl in Dialogue event in London on Thursday, bringing together charities, industry organisations and suppliers to discuss community deprivation and locally focused support.

The initiative follows government data showing that 65 per cent of local authority districts across Great Britain contain at least one neighbourhood among the country’s 10 per cent most deprived areas.

Lidl said it will use a nationwide deprivation mapping tool developed by Neighbourly to identify areas facing acute challenges and direct support towards local needs. The tool, called Pulse, uses Neighbourly’s community data to identify areas that could otherwise be overlooked by broad charitable programmes.

Lidl’s support will focus on four areas: food security, community impact, children’s health and access to employment. Its existing programmes include surplus food redistribution through Neighbourly and Olio, alongside partnerships with the NSPCC and homelessness charity Standing Tall.

The retailer distributes £1m each year through the Lidl Community Fund via Neighbourly, with customers and colleagues voting on the causes receiving funding. Its Lidl Foodies programme provides nutritional education in one in four primary schools in Britain, while its partnership with the NSPCC and Childline raised £2.5m last year for counselling services.

Lidl said its employment initiatives will include paid programmes, youth schemes and recruitment support, including its partnership with Standing Tall to help people experiencing homelessness access stable employment.

Georgina Hall, corporate affairs director at Lidl, said the retailer’s 1,015-plus stores and reach across three in five households gave it visibility of pressures facing communities.

“We know that no two neighbourhoods are the same. A one-size-fits-all approach does not work,” Hall said. She said the five million target represented Lidl’s commitment to scaling its community support through more targeted action.

The retailer said Better Futures will combine its national reach with information from local partners to shape support around individual communities, rather than applying the same approach across different areas.

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