Aligned with our purpose of 'helping Australians to eat and live better every day', we support many charities and community organisations across Australia through partnerships, fundraising, food donations and disaster relief.
We are committed to serving and supporting the Australian community and have invested significantly in the communities in which we operate for more than 110 years.
Our contribution includes financial assistance and in-kind donations to community partners. It also includes helping our customers and communities through times of disaster.
We encourage our team members to support the communities in which they live and work. Through the Coles Local Community Support Program, stores can provide gift cards or donate products to support local events and fundraising initiatives.
Coles' national community partners include food rescue organisation SecondBite and children's cancer charity Redkite. In addition to these national partnerships, Coles also supports a range of state and local initiatives which help reduce disadvantage, drive improved health outcomes, reduce environmental impacts, assist the food and grocery sector and contribute to schools and community groups.
To help young people live healthy, active lives, Coles supermarkets also partners with Little Athletics Australia to provide support and resources to more than 500 athletics centres across Australia.
More information on our community partners, including information on applying for support, can be found
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Food rescue organisation SecondBite collects unsold, edible food directly from our supermarkets or organises for local charities and not-for-profits to collect on its behalf. In addition to collecting and redistributing food from our supermarkets, SecondBite collects food from our fresh and chilled distribution centres. The food we provide to SecondBite is distributed to more than 1,100 community partners that are helping Australians in need.
Since 2011 Coles and SecondBite have been working together in the fight against hunger and food waste. Throughout the course of the partnership, Coles has provided SecondBite with the equivalent of more than 200 million meals.
Our partnership with SecondBite goes beyond donating food from Coles’ Supermarkets and distribution centres. We connect SecondBite to key suppliers who are also seeking to reduce food waste and support vulnerable people in their community.
Coles Supermarkets and liquor stores also provide fundraising opportunities via our customers through annual Winter and Christmas appeals and other promotional programs throughout the year.
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Coles has partnered with childhood cancer support charity Redkite since 2013, raising more than $50 million to date. Our partnership has enabled Redkite to provide counselling services, financial assistance, information resources and education support to children with cancer and their families.
Funds raised by Coles over the past nine years have also enabled Redkite to provide 336 Dare to Dream Scholarships of up to $5,000 to support young Australians affected by cancer to achieve their goals
and ambitions.
In FY23, the total amount raised for Redkite by Coles, our team members and customers was $3.8 million. Of this, Coles contributed more than $1.6 million through the donation of five cents from the sale of every loaf of specially marked Coles Brand bread sold at Coles Supermarkets and Coles Express.
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Our national partnership with Little Athletics, together with the Coles AFL Healthy Kicks program seek to help the youngest members of the community to stay fit and be active.
Coles provided more than $250,000 in sports equipment grants to 73 Little Athletics centres across Australia, taking the total contribution of Little Athletics grants to over $2.2 million since 2018. We also raised $150,000 for the Coles Little Athletics Community Fund through the Little Athletics Banana A-Peel in May.
In addition, hundreds of our supermarkets continued to team up with their local Little Athletics Centres, donating thousands of bananas each week throughout the season to encourage healthy eating and support grassroots initiatives like Coles Community Round.
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Coles has a long history of supporting local communities by raising and donating funds for disaster relief, as well as essential supplies to support emergency services and vulnerable communities.
In recent times, Coles and our customers have supported communities across Australia affected by bushfires, cyclones and floods.
In November 2022, when devastating floods hit towns in New South Wales and Victoria, our local stores donated essential products including cereal, water, milk, packaged items and pet food to flood-affected residents.
Coles Online delivered more than 7,500 essential groceries and sanitary products to the evacuation centre at Forbes High School, and provided hampers to residents of the flood-hit town of Eugowra, in New South Wales.
In Victoria, we donated 44 pallets of essential groceries, nappies and cleaning products to the local Emergency Relief Centre in Shepparton, and five pallets were delivered to the Njernda Aboriginal Corporation in Echuca for Indigenous residents. Coles also worked with charity Housing Justice to provide care packs to residents forced to relocate from Rochester.
Funds donated by our customers and Coles helped the Red Cross to support volunteers and staff to assist with evacuations, relief centres and cash assistance. In addition, monies raised will enable longer term recovery work in flood-affected communities.
