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Tesco grant helps families with ‘Make-Do-And-Mend’ Attitude in South Tyneside

A South Tyneside community project working to instil families with skills to follow a ‘make-do-and-mend’ attitude has received a significant boost, thanks to a £2,000 donation from Tesco.

Williby Roc’s CIC is a learning project set up with an aim to realise residents’ potential for creativity and resourcefulness, using eco-friendly reclaimed materials as well as mending various household items.

And although it is no longer meeting because of the lockdown, the club’s Director, Danielle Pollard, said that as a result of the funding boost from Tesco’s Bags of Help Programme: “We’ll meet again, and come back bigger than ever before!”

Danielle said: “We’re extremely grateful to local shoppers across South Tyneside for voting for us and to Tesco for the grant. The money we received was put towards setting up a local ‘Fix It Café’ within Bilton Hall Community Trust, in Low Simonside.

“We’ve run four events and an Eco Fayre to date, with the grant being put toward the provision of tools, room hire, materials as well as food and refreshments for the sessions. It was a lovely way to engage volunteers for the Fix It Café from the local community.”

She continues: “The Café went down a storm, as we saw an incredibly diverse range of attendees bring in items that we worked together to fix. It’s something we’ll certainly look to run again after the isolation period has ended and we’ve already started putting in plans to run another Eco Fayre this summer.”

Danielle concludes: “I’d like to thank everyone at Tesco and Groundwork for funding Williby Roc’s, which helped deliver an impactful community project in South Tyneside. It’s helped to instil a ‘can-do’ attitude in the community at a time when we certainly need it most!”

The Tesco Bags of Help grants, which are administered by the charity Groundwork, sees money awarded to thousands of local community projects every year.

David Ford, Local Communications Manager of the North, said: “We are really proud of the impact Bags of Help has had in communities across the North East. Williby Roc’s is just one of many groups across the nation which have benefitted from funding through the scheme, and we have awarded millions to similar projects which benefit communities across the region. We would encourage anyone with a project that could make a difference to their local community to find out about how Bags of Help could help them.”

To date, Bags of Help has provided more than £80million to more than 27,000 community projects across the UK.

Graham Duxbury, Groundwork’s National Chief Executive, said: “Bags of Help continues to enable local communities up and down Britain to improve their local spaces and the 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.”

Earlier this month, Tesco announced its plan to provide a £30million package of support to local communities with a £500 grant available for local groups in the North West.

Tesco’s CEO Dave Lewis outlined the plans to provide £30million of support for local communities including £25million in food donations.

In a step to further help local communities, a £2million Bags of Help COVID-19 Community Fund has been created which 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, foodbanks, hospices, homeless charities, social isolation groups, schools, and charities supporting the elderly and local authorities. The application and payment process is simple to provide support quickly to these important causes.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tesco .