Lidl stores in Donegal raise €19,000 for Jigsaw

Lidl Ireland has announced it is extending its charity partnership with Jigsaw, the National Centre for Youth Mental Health in Ireland, for a further two years.

In 2021, the eight stores across Donegal and their 160 employees raised €19,000 for Jigsaw

As part of the new partnership, the retailer has pledged to raise €2.5 million for Jigsaw, providing free confidential professional support to young people aged 12-25, in 14 centres across Ireland.

To date, Lidl Ireland has raised over €1.8 million for the charity and has committed to raising an additional €700,000 by the end of the partnership in 2024.

This level of support has seen awareness of Jigsaw rise from 14% pre-partnership to 61% by December 2021, a period that saw a 33% increase in young people accessing Jigsaw’s services.

Lidl has partnered with Jigsaw since 2018 and previously extended its partnership with the charity to account for the impact of Covid-19 on youth mental health.

The focus for the future partnership with Jigsaw will be the development, promotion and rollout of One Good Community™ a two-year, community-led, five-step wellbeing programme for villages, towns and cities across Ireland.

Lidl has a network of Jigsaw Heroes across its stores who are key ambassadors for Jigsaw and play an important role in the charity’s ‘One Good’ programmes.

To date, the partnership has already directly supported over 65 secondary schools (with a total student population of over 38,500) through the rollout of One Good School™, an integrated programme for students, teachers and parents that empowers schools to strengthen the well-being and mental health of all their students.

Over the next two years, with ongoing support from Lidl, One Good School™ will reach an additional 155 schools across 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 Donegal donated 17,500 meals to charities in the local communities.

Commenting on the charity partnership extension with Jigsaw, J.P. Scally, CEO at Lidl Ireland, said they are very proud of the teams in Donegal and all they’ve done for their 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.”

Dr Joseph Duffy, CEO of Jigsaw, added they are genuinely delighted that Lidl has selected to extend the partnership for two years.

"This is a clear demonstration of their ongoing commitment to working with us to change the conversation on youth mental health in Ireland.

"Without the commitment of community partners like Lidl, we simply cannot continue to deliver the vital mental health supports and services our young people, their families and communities deserve.

"We look forward to continuing our work with Lidl, their staff and customers in helping us all better value and better support our young people’s mental health.”