Tesco has announced an additional £2million for its COVID-19 Community Fund, forming part of its £30million package of support to help local communities tackling the Coronavirus outbreak, with £500 grants available for groups across the region.
This brings the total to £4million of extra funding that has been made available to local groups through the supermarket’s Bags of Help scheme.
To date, the initiative has seen Tesco:
-Focus £2million of funding from its existing Bags of Help community donation scheme to charities that are helping the region’s most vulnerable
-Provide an additional top-up food donation of £15million of food over the past 11 weeks to FareShare and the Trussell Trust through its Community Food Connection scheme – food they need for distribution to community groups and food banks
-Build on its existing partnership with the British Red Cross, seeing it donate £2million to help the group with the extra costs they face in supporting people in need
Open up access to more than £1million of funding to support causes in their local area
Keith Jackson, Bags of Help manager at Tesco, said: “Due to the sustained need for the emergency support we’re seeing from local community groups, we took the decision to extend the scheme’s deadline beyond the original 12-week mark.
“We’re already working with all kinds of groups up the length and breadth of the country, all of whom are in urgent need of a cash boost in order to go on providing local people with vital services, but we’ve widened this even further.
“Whether you are from a homeless charity, a food bank, or a support network for vulnerable individuals, you could qualify for some immediate financial support.”
Tesco Group CEO, Dave Lewis, said: “Our stores are at the heart of the communities we serve and as well as supporting our customers and colleagues, we want to help those who need it most, locally. We will significantly boost our food donations programme, to ensure food banks and community groups have the supplies they need; whilst giving extra resources to the British Red Cross and focus our Bags of Help scheme to deliver more community support where it’s most needed at this difficult time.”
To apply for funding through Bags of Help:
Tesco’s Bags of Help COVID-19 Community Fund aims to support as many groups as possible across the country with grants of £500. This includes, but is not limited to, women’s refuges, food banks, hospices, homeless charities, social isolation groups, schools, charities supporting the elderly and local authorities. The application and payment process is simple to provide support quickly to these important causes.
The process is managed through Tesco’s partner charity Groundwork’s website. Any groups that would benefit from this funding are encouraged to apply here: www.tescobagsofhelp.org.uk
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