X5 Retail Group and Foodbank Rus announce the results of the first regionwide Basket of Kindness food marathon held to collect food donations for senior citizens and distressed families with children. Over 240 Pyaterochka and Perekrestok stores across the Tula region took part in the marathon on 29 February collecting some 24.6 tonnes of donations to prepare 4,100 parcels of food and home care products. The result was more than three times better than expected and made it possible to increase the number of recipients accordingly.

More than 700 volunteers from Foodbank Rus lent a hand in collecting and packaging the donations. They have already started to distribute food packages to 240 senior citizens and over 1,900 low-income families with children in the Tula region. The list of aid recipients was compiled by the SOVA Social Support Centre in cooperation with the children's ombudsman for the region.

X5 Retail Group undertook to pay all organisational costs, including infrastructure, logistics and other expenses associated with the food drive. On top of that, the Company added some missing items to the parcels to provide each food basket with a full range of essential basic products.

The Tula region initiative was the first in a series of 2020 food marathons due to take place in Nizhny Novgorod, Krasnodar, Voronezh and Moscow. In addition, the third online marathon will be held via the basketofkindness.rf (корзинадоброты.рф) website to help those in need in the Omsk region.

X5 Retail Group and Foodbank Rus launched the Basket of Kindness programme in 2015. X5 pioneered food drives in Russia, creating and promoting local food aid infrastructure that allows customers to donate food in-store to support people in need. In 2018, X5 and Foodbank Rus decided to run the Basket of Kindness project in the form of citywide food marathons. In 2019, four such marathons were held across all X5 stores in Rostov-on-Don, Novosibirsk and Moscow (twice), in addition to a two-month online marathon held for the second time at basketofkindness.rf to collect food donations for senior citizens living alone in rural areas of the Samara region. The five marathons helped collect approximately 80 tonnes of donations. All in all, the 2019 charitable campaigns yielded 173 tonnes of food products, which is nearly double the 2018 result.