Waitrose Foundation
The Waitrose Foundation was created in 2005 to help improve the livelihoods of, and create better opportunities for, the people and communities who grow, pick and pack our fresh produce. Since inception, the Foundation has invested more than £19m into over 1,700 community projects.
Operating across nine countries in Africa and Central America, a percentage of the sale of Foundation products goes back into the country of origin - co-funded with our dedicated suppliers.
Throughout 2022 we generated £2.2m through the sale of Foundation products, reached over 59,000 farmers and workers, delivering 181 projects to create better livelihoods. These included the expansion of our microloans programme in East Africa primarily used to fund school fees and income diversification projects, the ongoing school farm competition in Ghana to inspire youth in agricultural careers as well as energy saving measures in the homes of workers within South Africa.
Customers are able to support Waitrose Foundation projects by purchasing any Waitrose Foundation product. You can spot any of our Waitrose Foundation range in store by looking for the logo.
Where a product bears the Waitrose Foundation label, approximately 2% or equivalent1 of the retail sale price of that product is channelled through our implementing partners* to invest in community development projects which support workers on the farms we source these products from.
In 2022/23 the Foundation investment2 that was accrued for the Foundation and provided to implementation partners was split as follows:
*Waitrose Foundation South Africa - £1,240,605 (53%)
Farm Africa - £824,520 (35.3%)
Blue Skies Foundation - £140,000 (6%)
United Purpose - £102,413 (4.4%)
Fruktus Foundation - £31,670 (1.4%)
You can find out more about the Waitrose Foundation here.
1. Flowers contributions are calculated per stem as opposed to a percentage of the Retail Sales Value. In some cases suppliers' contributions are a mixture of financial investment and in-kind resources.
2. ‘Foundation investment’ is the accrued finances from sales in the 2022/23 financial year plus additional Global Strategic Fund payments made to the partner that year. For clarity, accrued finances are not sent to the partner until the end of the financial year, whilst global fund payments are paid throughout the year.