Yet awareness remains extremely low, with just 4% of the 2.6 million people working across the industry familiar with GroceryAid. “The problem we have today is that we’re only helping 19,200 people,” Kieran Hemsworth, chief executive of GroceryAid, told Food Manufacture. This, in combination with low levels of savings, has caused challenges for many, while also flagging the importance of the work GroceryAid does, Hemsworth added. Barcode Festival is among the events GroceryAid holds to help support its charitable work. This year, the event raised a record-breaking £1.19 million which will help fund the work GroceryAid does.