Iceland Foods Partners with Pennies to Make Fundraising For ‘Calm’ Easier This Charity Week

Iceland Foods has joined forces with fintech charity Pennies to make it even easier for customers to support suicide prevention charity Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) this Charity Week (10 – 17 May 2025).

The new partnership allows customers to make a small donation when paying by card at checkout – 10p in Iceland stores and 20p in The Food Warehouse – with proceeds going to Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation (IFCF) to directly benefit CALM, supporting its life-saving mental health services.

The initiative has been rolled out across stores nationwide, and for this week only, as part of Charity Week, the donation amounts will be doubled, with 20p donations in Iceland stores and 40p in The Food Warehouse.

This marks the latest step in a long-standing partnership between IFCF and CALM. In recent years, IFCF has donated over £850,000, which is enough to fund over 70,000 calls on CALM’s life-saving helpline. IFCF also backed their high-impact campaign “Missed Birthdays” and their recent short film “Evelyn”. Together, IFCF and CALM hope to increase the total raised to £1million through this year’s Charity Week activity.

Richard Walker, Executive Chairman of Iceland Foods said: “At Iceland, we’re always looking for simple, meaningful ways to support the causes that matter – both to us and our customers. That’s why we’re proud to be partnering with Pennies, giving people the chance to make a small donation at the checkout to help fund the brilliant work CALM does.

“This new option to give a small donation by card is an easy way for our customers to get involved and help CALM continue its vital work to prevent suicide and support those who need it most, and we’re incredibly grateful to our customers for their generosity and support.”

Alison Hutchinson CBE, CEO of Pennies said: “We’re thrilled to welcome Iceland Foods into the Pennies family. Giving customers the chance to donate with their purchases and support great causes is a small act with a big impact—and we know Iceland shoppers will rise to the occasion. A few hours of donations will add up quickly, allowing IFCF to support CALM’s vital mental health services. Together we’re excited to make a real difference in communities across the UK, now and into the future.”

This new initiative forms part of Iceland’s wider Charity Week efforts, which coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week (12–18 May). As part of the week’s activity, Iceland colleagues will take to the pitch on Friday 16 May for the Mental Health World Cup, a national 5-a-side football tournament founded in memory of Lanfranco Gaglione, who tragically took his own life in 2012.

Team Iceland will be captained by Paul Dhaliwal, Chief Commercial Officer, and made up of a mix of eight colleagues from Iceland and CALM, competing against 47 other corporate teams in a one-day tournament to raise vital awareness for mental health and suicide prevention.

Paul Dhaliwal, Chief Commercial Officer at Iceland Foods and team captain, added: “Mental health is something that affects every one of us, and CALM’s work is becoming increasingly more important. Taking part in the Mental Health World Cup is a real honour – not just to raise money for a great cause, but to show solidarity with those who are struggling. It’s a powerful reminder that we’re stronger when we come together, both on and off the pitch.”

For more information on Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation work, please visit: https://ifcf.org.uk/

About Iceland

Iceland Foods is recognised as the UK’s leader in frozen food and operates over 950 stores across the country, including The Food Warehouse locations, together with a multi-award-winning online shopping service.

It prides itself on being a convenient and friendly place to do the family’s weekly shop, as well as meet everyone’s daily top-up shopping needs for fresh, chilled, frozen food and groceries. For more than 20 years Iceland has also offered a unique, free home delivery service for in-store purchases.  

Iceland was voted the UK’s favourite online grocery service at the Good Housekeeping Awards in 2021 and 2022. The retailer was also named the UK’s Best Online Supermarket in a survey by consumer champion Which? in 2022.  

Iceland and The Food Warehouse enjoy exclusive partnerships with a range of leading brands including Blue Dragon, Cathedral City, Greggs, Harry Ramsden’s, Myprotein, Slimming World, Mumsnet, Ninja and TGI Fridays.

Iceland has always been a responsible retailer, operating under its ‘Doing it Right’ ethos. Recognised as the only UK supermarket to rank in The Sunday Times Best Place to Work for 2024, Iceland is dedicated to doing the right thing in its supply chain and in the way it treats its people and customers. Iceland is also committed to minimising its impact on the environment and contributing to the communities where it operates by regenerating high streets, creating jobs, providing outstanding customer service and giving generous support to a range of good causes.

About The Food Warehouse

Founded in 2014, The Food Warehouse is part of Iceland Foods, which operates over 950 stores across Britain, including The Food Warehouse locations. All 190 Food Warehouse stores are large format stores with a car park, providing the value and convenience of a wholesale store without the hassle of membership.

The Food Warehouse is opening new stores up and down the country in retail parks and larger shopping districts. Each store is given a high-quality warehouse style fit out and covers between 10,000 and 25,000 sq. ft. of retail space. The Food Warehouse offers great value, family-favourite products across frozen, chilled, fresh, branded grocery and homeware lines. With big deals, big choice and big packs across many big brands, customers can make great savings with bulk deals where savings are passed directly onto shoppers.   

About Pennies

Pennies is an award-winning fintech charity with an important mission: to enable, protect and grow micro-donations, ensuring people have digital ways to keep donating the small sums of money that are so vital to charities.

As a trusted leader in digital micro-donations, Pennies has created a movement that encourages giving, offers businesses a powerful way to demonstrate social purpose, helps charities make a greater impact, and gives the public a way to donate without cash, as part of their daily lives.

In an increasingly cashless society, Pennies’ gives customers paying by card or digital wallet a convenient way to add a small donation to their purchase, when shopping with participating brands.  Whether in-store, online and in-app, it’s a simple, affordable, data-free way to donate, with 100% of funds raised going to charity.

Millions of people are now making micro-donations every single week. To date Pennies has partnered with more than 120 brands and enabled more than 220 million micro-donations, raising millions of pounds in much-needed additional income for 1,000+ charities in the UK, Republic of Ireland and beyond. Together, payment providers, merchants and their customers are helping hundreds of charities make a meaningful difference to the causes and communities they serve.

Because micro-donations matter, now more than ever.

For more information about Pennies please visit: pennies.org.uk

• Twitter: @pennies_orguk
• Instagram: @pennies_orguk
• Facebook: @Penniesorguk
• LinkedIn: @the-pennies-foundation

About Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation (IFCF)

IFCF has raised £38 million to date for our charity partners. Our primary focus is on projects within four core areas: Dementia, Environment, Wellbeing and Children. Further details can be found on our website www.ifcf.org.uk.

Examples of our partnerships include £10m to help fund the new ground-breaking UK Dementia Research Institute opening in London in 2025, over £5m to Alzheimer’s Research UK, £1.5m Alzheimer’s Society and over £1 million to The National Brain Appeal – to help create the world’s first Rare Dementia Support Centre

We have co developed resources with The UK Sepsis Trust to raise vital awareness of Sepsis symptoms, resources now used by companies and schools throughout the UK. IFCF donated £1m to Prostate Cancer UK and recently worked with them to promote their online 30 second risk checker to the public. We have donated £873,000 to Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) to help unite against suicide. We have also given over £6m to children’s charities, our recent Action for Children partnership provided urgent support to children in some of the most challenging circumstances.

IFCF inspired a million hours of nature engagement for children in the UK through our Backyard Nature campaign. We fund the SAS Million Mile Clean, seeing thousands of volunteers clean our beaches, rivers and urban areas.

IFCF’s social channels include:

• Twitter: @IcelandCharity
• Instagram: @icelandcharity
• Facebook: @Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation
• LinkedIn: @Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation