UK Food Banks Open Up About Impact Of Taylor Swift's Donations During Eras Tour

Taylor Swift is making her mark in cities around the UK in more ways than one.

Over the weekend, the pop star wrapped up the first UK leg of her Eras tour, after performing a string of shows in Edinburgh, Liverpool, Cardiff and London.

Along the way, she’s been making donations to food banks in every city that she’s performed in, which has already made a huge impact for the recipients.

The Karma singer’s donation to the Cardiff Foodbank is the largest the charity has ever received, which it said has now given them “breathing space” to try new things.

“We’re going to buy an articulated lorry full of food and other most-needed items to supplement our emergency food parcels,” said chief executive Rachel Biggs (per The Guardian).

Taylor’s donation will now provide the weight equivalent to feeding 1,200 people three meals a day, for three days (or 10,800 meals), according to the charity. 

Another food bank in Liverpool said that Taylor’s donations would help get it through the next 12 months.

“It’s the most incredible gift,” said Rich Jones from the St Andrew’s Community Network in Liverpool. “Because of rising prices, rising need and falling donations, we’ve been having to subsidise our food ourselves for a long while.”

He continued: “But it’s fair to say that Taylor Swift has essentially paid our food bill for 12 months.”

Charlotte Moorcroft, from the same charity, added: “What was also lovely was that Taylor was keen to impress her support for the work of our team.”

This isn’t the first time on the Eras tour the 14-time Grammy winner has given to food banks, with Arizona, Nevada and Tampa being among locations that have benefitted from the singer’s donations.

The 14-time Grammy winner has donated to various causes over the years.

In 2015, she gave £32,000 to a fan with cancer, while her 2012 song Ronan – named after a young boy with brain cancer – was written in his memory, with proceeds from the song going towards cancer charities.

She also donated around £86,000 to the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Tennessee Equality Project (TEP) in 2019, and gave $250,000 (around 197,387) to help fellow singer Kesha at the height of her legal issues back in 2016.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Taylor also helped families who were struggling financially, including two mothers who were struggling to pay their rent.