Empanda Care & Support is delighted to announce it has bagged £2,000 from Tesco’s Bags of Help community grant scheme.
Bags of Help is run in partnership with environmental charity Groundwork, and sees grants raised from the sale of carrier bags awarded to thousands of local community projects every year. Since launching in 2015, it’s provided more than £40 million to over 9,700 local community projects.
Hundreds of shoppers voted in the Tesco Brandon store and Empanda has been awarded £2,000 for gardening tools and equipment to help get a Community Allotment Project off the ground and bring the project to life. The ‘Empanda Community Garden’ will grow produce for the community café in the Brandon Day Centre and will offer gardening and learning opportunities for older people using the day centre, adults with a learning difficulty and anyone interested in getting involved in the garden or in learning new skills and meeting new people.
Sally Hanlin, Empanda’s Managing Director, said, “We are delighted to have won this award and would like to thank all the shoppers at Tesco, Brandon, for choosing our project. We were very fortunate to have been gifted an allotment by the Brandon Allotment Association and the grant will help us transform the overgrown and unloved piece of land, into a thriving community garden which can be enjoyed by local people whilst helping to support the Day Centre. We are currently looking for volunteers with gardening experience to get involved with this project.”
Alec Brown, Tesco’s Head of Community, said, “Bags of Help has been a fantastic success and we’ve been overwhelmed by the response from customers. It’s such a special scheme because it’s local people who decide how the money will be spent in their community. We can’t wait to see the projects come to life.”
Voting ran in stores throughout September and October with customers choosing which local project they would like to get the top award using a token given to them at the checkout.
Tesco customers get the chance to vote for three different groups each time they shop. Every other month, when votes are collected, three groups in each of Tesco’s regions are awarded funding.
Groundwork’s National Chief Executive, Graham Duxbury 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.”
Funding is available to community groups and charities looking to fund local projects that bring benefits to communities. Anyone can nominate a project and organisations can apply online. To find out more visit www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp.
Pictured here with a Save the Children member of staff at an outpatient clinic of Save the Children supported Griftu sub-county hospital, Wajir, Kenya, is six month old Abdigafar, one of the many children who has benefited from our support. Our gift has meant that he got the treatment he needed for pneumonia and was able to make a full recovery.