Chilterns support Drake Primary School with Tesco 'Bags of Help' Scheme

Drake Primary School is bidding to bag a massive cash boost from the Tesco Bags of Help initiative.

Tesco teamed up with Groundwork to launch its community funding scheme, which sees grants of £4,000, £2,000 and £1,000 – raised from carrier bag sales in Tesco stores - being awarded to local community projects.

Three groups in every Tesco region have been shortlisted to receive the cash award and shoppers are being invited to head along to Tesco stores to vote for who they think should take away the top grant.

Drake Primary School is one of the groups on the shortlist.

Drake is a growing Primary School and we have just had a large build and refurbishment project take place at our School to accommodate this. As part of the build we have a new Library and new furniture but no new books. We have books from when we were an Infant School but we need to buy books, both fiction and nonfiction, suitable for our older Key stage 2 children.

Mrs Ridgeon, Deputy Head children said:-

‘ We will use any funding we are awarded to buy all kinds of exciting books to go into our lovely new Library which will help inspire our children to read and learn’

Voting is open in all Tesco stores throughout November and December. Customers will cast their vote using a token given to them at the check-out in store each time they shop.

Tesco’s Bags of Help project has already delivered over £36 million to nearly 8,000 projects up and down the UK. Tesco customers get the chance to vote for three different groups every time they shop. Every other month, when votes are collected, three groups in each of Tesco’s regions will be awarded funding.

Alec Brown, Head of Community at Tesco, said:

 “We are absolutely delighted to open the voting for November and December. There are some fantastic projects on the shortlists and we can’t wait to see these come to life in hundreds of communities.”

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

 “We’ve been thrilled to see the diversity of projects that have applied for funding, ranging from outdoor classrooms, sports facilities, community gardens, play areas and everything in between.

“We’re looking forward to learning the results of the customer vote and then supporting each group to bring their project to life.”

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 about the scheme click here. 

Andrew Overman of Chilterns met with Allison Haines (Business Manager) Tim Ritchie (Assistant Head), both of Drake Primary School and with Sarah Douthwaite (Tesco Community Champion, Thetford) to promote the scheme across social media to help with efforts to raise this much needed cash for the school library fund.