For many smaller charities and community groups the spike in demand for their services has coincided with a drop in corporate income, which has created a perfect storm for Britain’s third sector. MERKUR UK has bucked the trend providing support to 75 organisations so far this year.

MERKUR UK and its high street customers have got 2025 off to a record-breaking start distributing a magnificent £147,706.59 to no fewer than 75 charities and not for profit community groups over the first five months of the year.

MERKUR Initiative and MERKUR Community has supported a raft of organisations ranging from food banks to environmental groups, basketball teams to inner city football clubs and arts programmes to community gardens based in England, Scotland and Wales. The selection of charities is driven by recommendations received from customers and team members working across the MERKUR UK family of businesses.

One of the nominated organisations the MK Food Bank celebrated its 21st anniversary supporting the population in Milton Keynes and surrounding villages. Growing from a small set-up the Food Bank has expanded to having 13 distribution centres working with 100 agencies. An increase in demand has seen the community-based organisation been called on to help 50 new families with over 600 food parcels being distributed every week, the equivalent of 31,200 a year. The spike in demand caused by short-term crises such as unemployment as well as deeper, ongoing food poverty in the community has coincided with a significant drop in donations. A £12,000 MERKUR Partnership contribution has been made to help cover the purchase of supplies for emergency food parcels and top-up shops, as well as to support the maintenance of vans used to deliver to MK Food Bank’s centres in the county.

Louisa Hobbs, Operations Manager, MK Food Bank confirmed: “The trustees and staff at MK Food Bank are thrilled that MERKUR is providing funding to support our services this year. This generous grant is greatly appreciated as part of our valued partnership and will enable us to help many residents of Milton Keynes who are facing financial hardship and food insecurity.”

350-miles north of Milton Keynes MERKUR UK has provided support for the Urban Roots Initiative based on the Southside of Glasgow. An environmental and health improvement charity working in communities with marginalised and socially excluded groups Urban Roots has 10 community gardens, a 14-hectare community woodland as well as a wetland.  A range of activities are provided for the local community including gardening sessions, biodiversity work, community meals and cookery clubs.

MERKUR and its customers have provided £2,000 of funding to cover the purchase of materials and plants required to rebuild one of their gardens. The site will be open to everyone in the community including local schools. Urban Roots’ Selina Boyack underlined the importance of the £2,000 grant explaining: “This funding means we are able to repair and rebuild our community growing garden at Polmadie Plots. Our volunteers will build the garden in our regular weekly gardening sessions which are an essential part of the local community offering a place for environmental protection, education, community cohesion, recovery, and wellbeing for a diverse group of people.” 

Reflecting on MERKUR UK’s engagement with the country’s charities and community groups General Manager Sascha Blodau said: “When we launched MERKUR Initiative and MERKUR Community we wanted to do two things. Firstly, it was important to involve our customers and our team members in the process of identifying organisations that they wanted us to assist and to help with generating funds.

“The second objective was to broaden the net in order to work with a greater number of organisations active in the communities where MERKUR UK has a presence. What we’ve found is that so many organisations are finding it incredibly difficult to generate the funds that they need to function at the same time as seeing the demand for their services increase exponentially. A MERKUR Community award of £2,000 to a local football club to buy kit and hire pitches can make the difference between playing and folding – it’s as simple and as stark as that. I’m delighted at what the team has achieved in helping so many hugely worthwhile organisations throughout the country.”