Samaritans Leeds is delighted to announce it has bagged £2000 from Tesco’s Bags of Help community grant scheme.
Bags of Help is run in partnership with environmental charity Groundwork, and sees grants awarded to thousands of local community projects every year. Since launching in 2015, it’s provided more than £67 million to over 21,000 local community projects. Millions of shoppers have voted in Tesco stores up and down the country and it can now be revealed Samaritans Leeds has been awarded £2000.
Samaritans Leeds reach out and work with schools, colleges and universities, workplaces, health and welfare services, prisons and other charities in our local area. Tracey Whitehead, External Deputy Director of Samaritans Leeds, said: “£2000 is a massive help towards the cost of training our volunteers. On top of our general ‘Listening Volunteer’ duties we are specifically trained in order to support many organisations across the region. We would like to thank Tesco’s Bags of Help community grant scheme, Groundwork and the people of Leeds for these funds.”
Voting ran in stores throughout November and December 2018 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.
Alec Brown, Tesco’s Head of Community, said: “Bags of Help contributes funds to community projects up and down the country and we’ve been overwhelmed by the response from customers voting in their local stores. We’re looking forward to seeing more projects brought to life.”
Groundwork’s National Chief Executive, Graham Duxbury, said: “Bags of Help continues to enable local communities up and down Britain 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.”