Member Article

Community projects across Yorkshire celebrate after £5 million funding landmark from Tesco

Charities and community groups across Yorkshire have now been awarded grants totalling £5 million thanks to Tesco’s Bags of Help initiative.

Since launching in 2015, the scheme, run in conjunction with the charity Groundwork, has seen £75 million from the sale of Bags for Life fund more than 25,000 local projects across the UK.

This week the total grants awarded passed the £5 million mark, with 1,969 projects across Yorkshire and The Humber benefitting to date.

The projects supported have been diverse, but have all been voted for by Tesco customers because of the difference they make in their local community.

One recent grant recipient is the national children’s charity, Transforming Lives for Good (TLG), with headquarters in Bradford. It received £4,000 in funding to enhance its TLG Make Lunch Club provision throughout the summer holidays to bring hope and a future to struggling children.

Rosemary Austin, TLG Make Lunch Coordinator comments: “As a leading children’s charity Tesco Bags of Help funding will go a long way in helping us engage and support 40 young children throughout the summer, easing family difficulties when it comes to supporting their children during this period.

“The funding will go towards developing and delivering a number of activities throughout the summer, positively benefiting the children. We are in the process of renovating our kitchen and purchasing equipment to hold cooking lessons, which would allow the children to take their creations back home to share with their family.

Rosemary added: “To improve the children’s physical activity we have arranged for them to go swimming we’re taking them to visit a local wildlife park and museum.

“On the final day of the holidays we are taking the families out to Scarborough for the day to have a fun day out together at the beach – hopefully we have some nice weather for it! We want to give these children the best experiences and positive lasting memories of a great summer holiday.”

Keith Jackson, Tesco’s Bags of Help Manager said: “It’s really important to us at Tesco that we play an active role in the communities we serve. One way we can do that is through our Bags of Help scheme, and we are really proud to have awarded more than £5.5m to groups across Yorkshire.

“Each of the 1,969 projects in the region have been voted for by our customers in their local Tesco stores, so we know that the funding is going to groups that are really valued in their local communities.

“We award grants of up to £4,000 every two months and we encourage any community groups that could benefit from the funding to put themselves forward.”

Graham Duxbury the National Chief Executive of Groundwork, which administers the scheme, said: “Bags of Help continues to enable local communities up and down the UK to improve the local spaces and places that matter to them. The diversity of projects that are being funded shows that local communities have a passion to create something great in their area. We are pleased to be able to be a part of the journey and provide support and encouragement to help local communities thrive.”

Customers are able to vote for a Bags of Help project in Tesco stores using a blue token given to them at the check-out. At the end of voting period, votes are collected and three groups in each of Tesco’s regions will be awarded funding.

Anyone can nominate a project and organisations can apply online.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tesco .