Lidl’s Tyrrellspass CEO announces firm are expanding partnership with Jigsaw
Lidl Ireland, headed up by Tyrrellspass man JP Scally, have announced they are extending their charity partnership with Jigsaw, the National Centre for Youth Mental Health in Ireland, for a further two years.
In 2021, the three stores and Regional Distribution Centre in Westmeath and their 380 employees raised €5,000 for Jigsaw. As part of the new partnership, the retailer has pledged to raise €2.5 million for Jigsaw, who provide free, confidential, professional support to young people aged 12-25, in 14 centres across Ireland.
Lidl Ireland have raised some €1.8 million for the charity to date and have committed to raise an additional €700,000 by the end of the partnership in 2024.
This level of support has raised awareness of Jigsaw from 14% pre-partnership to 61% by December 2021, a period in which there was a 33% increase in young people accessing Jigsaw services.
Mr Scally said: “We are proud of the teams in Westmeath and all they’ve done for our chosen charity and in food donations last year. At Lidl, it is important to us that we are supporting causes and charities that our colleagues are invested in and care about and it was with their input and feedback that we decided that an extension of our partnership with Jigsaw was where we wanted to keep our focus.
“While the data tells us we are seeing increased awareness of mental health difficulties in our youth, more needs to be done. We want to empower all Irish adults to support the young people in their lives, through ‘One Good Adult’, ‘Club’ or ‘Community’, and encourage young people themselves to seek help when and where they need to most.”
Lidl have partnered with Jigsaw since 2018 and the focus for the future partnership will be the development, promotion and rollout of ‘One Good Community’ a two-year, community-led, five-step wellbeing programme.
Lidl have a network of Jigsaw Heroes, who are key ambassadors for the charity and play an important role in the ‘One Good’ programmes.
To date, the partnership has directly supported 65 secondary schools (total student population of 38,500) through the rollout of ‘One Good School’, a programme that empowers schools to strengthen the wellbeing and mental health of students.
Over the next two years, with ongoing support from Lidl, One Good School will reach an additional 155 schools in 12 counties.
In 2020, Lidl and Jigsaw joined forces with the LGFA, Lidl’s sporting partner, to implement One Good Club – a five-step youth mental health awareness programme rolled out across 25 LGFA clubs in 25 counties across Ireland.
In addition to the charity work the retailer does with Jigsaw, Lidl Ireland also works with FoodCloud, whose mission is to redistribute surplus food to charities, and last year, Lidl stores in Westmeath donated 7,500 meals to charities in local communities.