Groups look for votes to bag share of bumper Tesco Bags of Help grant

The supermarket giant is marking its 100th anniversary with two Bags of Help funding rounds, with a huge £100,000 pot for Dorset.

Bags of Help, run in partnership with Groundwork, sees funding awarded to thousands of local community projects every year.

Customer voting in the first of the two rounds will begin this month and will concentrate on groups delivering health and wellbeing benefits, with a particular focus on groups tackling cancer, heart disease and diabetes, in line with Tesco’s National Health Partnership.

In Dorset, customers will cast their votes for shortlisted groups CLIC Sargent, St John Ambulance and Wessex Cancer Trust, using blue tokens handed out at checkouts. Grants of £25,000, £15,000 and £10,000 are up for grabs.

So far in Dorset, Bags of Help has awarded more than £1million to 328 local projects.

Another voting round will launch later in the year, with even more projects sharing in the cash.

The funding will reach more than 30 regions during each round, with £3,300,000 available in total.

Alec Brown, Tesco’s head of community, said: "In 2019, we are celebrating a century of delivering great value for our customers. And what better way to celebrate this occasion than by using our flagship community grant scheme, Bags of Help to support even more groups and organisations who are helping to make a difference across Britain.

"We encourage our shoppers to register their votes while in store and help support projects delivering health and wellbeing benefits in their local area."

Groundwork’s national chief executive, Graham Duxbury, said it is "an exciting time" for the scheme

He said: "With many more communities given the opportunity to apply for larger amounts of funding that can make a positive, long-lasting legacy where they live."

Anyone can nominate a project for Bags of Help, and organisations and groups looking to find out more or apply should visit tesco.com/bagsofhelp.