This December Aldi will launch a thoughtful new initiative encouraging customers to donate any unwanted or extra unused socks they received as Christmas gifts to charities supporting homeless people across Scotland.
Every year millions of people receive socks for Christmas and they are often a gift that no one really wants or needs. However, they are one of the things homeless charities always run out of over winter and Aldi’s ‘Not Socks Again?!’ initiative aims to put these gifts to better use by donating new and unused socks to local homeless charities.
Aldi’s ‘Sock Amnesty’ boxes will be in stores across Scotland from 27th December to the end of January where people can drop off their unused Christmas socks to help keep homeless people warm this winter.
Aldi has linked up with three charities across Scotland who will benefit from the initiative; Simon Scotland, Aberdeen Cyrenians, and Trust in Fife, who work tirelessly to provide care and support for the most vulnerable people in society.
Hugh Hill, Director of Services and Development at Simon Community Scotland, said: “As you can imagine, Scottish winters are absolutely freezing, and we often just don’t have enough socks to go round. We’re so pleased that Aldi has launched this initiative and we’re so grateful to Aldi and their customers for helping to keep the people we support warm this winter.”
Richard Holloway, Regional Managing Director for Scotland, said: “We wanted to do something to support homeless charities this Christmas who are working day in day out to support the most vulnerable people in society. One thing that homeless charities say they are always looking for is socks, so we thought, why not allow our customers to donate any unwanted socks they are given as a Christmas present to people who will really value them.
“Aldi will also contribute a £250 donation to each charity in the hope of helping the most vulnerable during winter.”
Aldi’s Sock Amnesty boxes will be in store from 27th December and customers are invited to drop off any unwanted, new and unused, socks which will be donated to the charity in their local area.
This initiative builds on Aldi’s commitment to supporting communities across Scotland. Since 2016, Aldi’s Scottish Sports Fund has supported over 458 local clubs with more than £240,000 worth of donations. Aldi is also Kiltwalk’s official ‘Supermarket Partner’ and in 2019 was responsible for fuelling over 20,000 Kiltwalkers across events in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Dumfries.
Meanwhile, since July 2019 Aldi has helped over 200 charities provide over a million meals to vulnerable people across Scotland through its partnership with community engagement platform, Neighbourly. The supermarket is also set to relaunch its popular Supermarket Sweep programme next year in support of local foodbanks.
