Great news: Lidl is expanding the Food Waste Heroes Programme across more stores, with 175 additional stores in the Luton and Newton Aycliffe area going live from 29th July.
Here are a few things to know before you start your collections at Lidl.
Here’s how it will work:
During the day, Lidl's charity partners will continue to collect Best Before food.
In the evening, charity partners that already collect from Lidl stores will be offered additional evening collections of surplus chilled produce and in-store bakery items.
Whenever a charity partner doesn’t sign up for those e evening collections, Olio Food Waste Heroes can sign up for those evening slots. That way, Food Waste Heroes can act as an extra layer of surplus redistribution.
It's a first-of-its-kind, three-way partnership between Lidl, Neighbourly and Olio 💚 thanks for being a part of it!
⏰ What time are collections?
Collections take place in a 15-minute window between 9:45pm and 10:00pm, just before the store closes.
On Sundays, trading hours are shorter, so collection times may be earlier. Your collection time will always be shown on the Volunteer Hub and will always be during the 15 minutes before the store closes.
❌ If you don't receive a confirmation message, please assume there's no food to collect and don't attend the store. This means the store hasn't confirmed whether food is available. You don't need to report this - we'll follow up with the store directly.
🥐 What food can be collected?
Evening Lidl collections focus on:
Use By food items reaching the end of their Use By date
Freshly baked bread, pastries and other in-store bakery items
✅ How do store colleagues verify a collector?
When you arrive, please show your Volunteer ID (available on the Volunteer Hub).
If food is available, you'll receive a second confirmation message in your Squad Chat containing a verification code (for example, 1234). You'll need to share this code with store colleagues before they can release the food.
Without the verification code, store colleagues won't be able to hand over the food, so please make sure you have it before arriving.
🔄 How are evening collections slots assigned?
There are two ways to collect from Lidl:
📌 Ongoing slots – Regular collections where no charity is signed up for the evening. Once you claim the slot, it's yours until you choose to step down or until a charity steps forward. We’ll let you know with plenty of notice if this happens
⏳ One-off slots – Single collections that become available when a charity can't attend their usual evening collection. These appear on the Volunteer Hub for any Food Waste Hero to claim. If you see one, grab it if you can - every collection counts! 💪
💬 Feedback and communication
If you have any questions or experience a problem with your collection, please submit an Issue Report Form under 'My Collections' on the Volunteer Hub.
We'd also love you to share your photos, feedback and collection stories in your squad chat.
Positive experiences with store colleagues and stories from requesters are always great to see, and Lidl and Neighbourly love hearing about the impact you're making too! 🤗