Author: Stacey Aplin

• £5m grant scheme launched by Tesco to support schools and children’s groups with funding for food and healthy activities
• Grants of up to £1,500 available to fund activities that focus on providing food to children

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Tesco is introducing a £5m grant programme, in partnership with Groundwork UK, to give children across the UK a stronger start in life. The grants will help schools and children’s groups provide nutritious food and healthy activities that support young people’s physical health and mental wellbeing, such as breakfast clubs or snacks, and equipment for healthy activities.

Customers can support their local school and children’s groups by dropping the Tesco blue token they receive at checkout into the relevant voting box as they leave the store.

The scheme, supported by UK community charity Groundwork, will replace the current Tesco Community Grants funding programme. Recent research from Groundwork found that 78% of schools are currently having to provide food for children from their own budget. The Stronger Starts research found that over half (51%) of parents agree that their child struggles to concentrate at school if they do not have breakfast.

“Helping schools and children’s groups access the food and resources they need is vitally important in getting children a stronger start in life. Children with enough food have more energy, better concentration, and ultimately achieve more too. As a business that is at the heart of communities across the country, we know that urgent action is needed to support the development and prospects of young people.  We hope our initiative will help families that are struggling to keep children fed and active.”   

Jason Tarry, Tesco UK CEO

“Since 2016, working with Tesco, we’ve supported more than 50,000 groups making life better in their local communities. Recently we’ve seen how schools and other groups supporting young people have been playing a much bigger role in ensuring children are getting a healthy start to the day and getting access to spaces and services to support physical activity and mental health. Family budgets are tight and school budgets are tight, but it’s so important that children stay fed, fit and focused, so we’re delighted to be able to prioritise these activities in the new Stronger Starts programme.”

Graham Duxbury, Groundwork’s UK Chief Executive

Stronger Starts is being supported by Kiss FM presenter, Jordan Banjo, who said: “It’s hard for kids to dream big when they’re hungry but by nominating your local school or children’s group, you can make a massive difference to the lives of thousands of youngsters.”

Schools and children’s groups will be able to apply via Groundwork for a grant of up to £1,500. Grants are for activities that focus on providing food to kids such as fruit for breakfast clubs or snacks to enjoy throughout the day, and for equipment for outdoor and indoor activities.  

Successful applications will go to a customer vote in their local Tesco store. Two out of the three blue token voting boxes by the checkout will be dedicated to local schools with the third given over to local community projects nominated by each store’s colleagues. Customers can then choose which of the three projects they’d like to support by voting with a blue token. 

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Notes to Editors

Every three months the grant scheme will support 1350 schools with £1.35m worth of funding in 675 communities across the UK. 

March saw Tesco publish its Community Impact Report. Since its Community Grants programme launched in 2015 it has awarded over £100 million in funding to more than 50,000 community projects, with grant awards decided by 700,000.000 votes cast by Tesco customers in stores across the UK.  The programme has helped tackle homelessness, promote diversity, support communities during the Covid 19 pandemic. It has supported veterans through charities based in our garrison towns and kept kids happy and active through sport. More recently it has helped get what’s needed most to families through funding for food, mental health support, lifesaving equipment and specialist resources. 

A community group that works with teenagers at risk of getting caught up in knife crime is just one of more than 50,000 projects across the UK that have received funding through Tesco Community Grants since their inception.

The London-based group, Power2’s Teens and Toddlers, is one of thousands of projects that Tesco Community Grants have supported and proudly features as an example of the supermarket’s work across the UK, in the Tesco’s Community Impact Report, published this week.

The report, created in partnership with the charity Groundwork, who run the Tesco Community Grants scheme, celebrates the successes of the grant funding programme, which has been helping communities since 2015 and breaks down how the £100m of Community Grants was allocated over that time.

Since it began, Tesco has awarded £101,881,339 in funding to 50,880 community projects.  The grant awards were decided by 738,402,011 votes cast by Tesco customers in stores across the UK using their iconic blue tokens.

Breakdown of grants by project focus:

Project focus	No. of grants awarded	Funding provided
Improving health & wellbeing	15,091	£30,396,315
Creating a better environment	5160	£17,260,217
Physical improvements to an outdoor space	3207	£17,145,443
Education, training, skills	6540	£11,187,705
Sport	4077	£7,127,781
Building better community relationships	3599	£6,123,605
Community activities in an outdoor space	1822	£4,180,573
Covid 19 emergency support	8049	£4,024,500
Arts & culture	1611	£2,500,409
Tackling food insecurity	1724	£1,934,791
	50,880	£101,881,339

Jason Tarry, Tesco UK & ROI CEO, said:

“More than ever we are seeing how local groups are making a big difference to the lives of those in their communities. More recently during Covid and now during the current cost of living crisis, they are sources of hope and practical help. We are immensely proud to have been able to play a part in funding their amazing work through our Tesco Community Grants scheme.”

Graham Duxbury, Chief Executive, Groundwork UK, said:

“We’ve been supporting local communities to make their areas safer, stronger and more sustainable for more than 40 years and we know that some of the most effective solutions to the challenges communities face are the ones led by people who live there.  There has never been a more important time to support the work being done by community groups, local charities and schools to keep people well and connected, to address hardship and to protect and improve the environment.  The commitment Tesco have made to supporting communities has been phenomenal and we’ve been delighted to work with them to make sure funds get to where they’re needed most.”

The scheme is open to applications from community groups, charities and not-for-profit organisations wanting to make a difference in their local area. Tesco customers and colleagues are also encouraged to nominate local good causes to be supported. Tesco customers in each store across the UK are given a blue token with their shopping to vote for the projects they think most deserve funding.

The programme has helped raise awareness of homelessness, funded breakfast clubs and school activities and supported veterans through charities based in our garrison towns. sport. More recently it has helped get what’s needed most to families through funding for food, mental health support, lifesaving equipment and specialist resources.  

Read the full report.

Thousands of school children across the UK will benefit from a new grant programme launching this summer which will provide £5 million in grants to help give them a healthier, more active, stronger start in life.

In the first year 5,300 schools will be able to apply for support funding to get pupils the nutritious food they need throughout the school day and resources to keep them physically active with new sports and play equipment or outdoor activities.

The scheme, supported by UK community charity Groundwork, will replace the current Tesco Community Grants funding programme. It will focus on getting schools who lack funds and resources, to apply for extra financial help they might need to provide healthy food and activities that boost young people’s mental and physical wellbeing.

Recent findings from Groundwork found that 78% of schools are currently having to provide food for children from their own budget. Data from the Child Poverty Action Group shows that 800,000 children living in poverty are not eligible for free school meals and two million children do not have access to a healthy diet.^[1]

Jason Tarry, Tesco UK CEO, said: 

“Tackling classroom hunger is vitally important in helping children get a stronger start in life. Children with enough food have more energy, better concentration and ultimately do better in school. As a business that is at the heart of communities, we know that urgent action is needed to improve the lives and prospects of young people.  We hope our initiative will help families and schools that are struggling to keep children fed.”

Graham Duxbury, Groundwork’s UK Chief Executive, said: 

“Schools are at the heart of our communities, and we have supported thousands of projects led by teachers and parents. We know that schools are now doing everything they can to help families cope with the rising cost of living, but that school budgets are also under huge pressure.  We’re really pleased that through the Tesco programme, we can now focus attention on helping schools provide extra support to those who need it most – helping families make ends meet and helping children learn and flourish.”

Schools will be able to apply via Groundwork for a grant of up to £1,500 that can go towards activities that focus on providing food to pupils such as fruit for breakfast clubs or snacks to enjoy throughout the day and for equipment for outdoor and indoor activities.

Successful applications will go to a customer vote in their local Tesco store. Two out of the three blue token voting boxes by the checkout will be dedicated to local schools with the third given over to local community projects nominated by each store’s colleagues. Customers can then choose which of the three projects they’d like to support by voting with a blue token.

The initiative will also be boosted by Tesco’s ‘Golden Grants’ events, that saw it give away £1 million last year to mark reaching £100m worth of grants awarded to local communities through the Tesco Community Grants Fund.  In 23/24, Tesco will award 200 x £5,000 ‘Golden Grants’ to schools and local projects.

This month also saw Tesco publish its Community Impact Report. Since its Community Grants programme launched in 2015 it has awarded over £100 million in funding to more than 50,000 community projects, with grant awards decided by 700,000 votes cast by Tesco customers in stores across the UK.

The programme has helped tackle homelessness, promote diversity, support communities during the Covid 19 pandemic. It has supported veterans through charities based in our garrison towns and kept kids happy and active through sport. More recently it has helped get what’s needed most to families through funding for food, mental health support, lifesaving equipment and specialist resources.

To find out more or to apply, please visit the apply for a grant page.

Community groups across the UK are in with a chance of winning £10,000 as part of the Tesco Community Grants ‘Golden Grants’ celebration.

The competition, run across social media platform Twitter, invites people to nominate community groups that provide support to young people or facilitate food projects, highlighting how this funding will support their local community.

The nominator of the successful community group will also receive a £500 cash prize.
The prize draw is part of Tesco marking awarded £100m to over 50,000 projects via the Tesco Community Grants programme, run in collaboration with community charity, Groundwork.

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How to enter

1. Go to Twitter.com.

2. If your charity or local good cause provides support to young people, or food within the community, tell us in one tweet why they need additional funding at this time and how how it will help people locally.

3. Your entry must include and demonstrate the following judging criteria: that funding is urgent (25%), needed (25%), and how it will help people locally (50%).

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The prize promotion opens at 00:00 on Thursday 13th October 2022 and closes at 23:59 on Saturday 15th October 2022.

Read the full Terms and Conditions