Pirates bag funding from Tesco community grant scheme

June 1st, 2018

The East Kilbride Pirates are delighted to announce we’ve bagged £3,975 from Tesco’s Bags of Help community grant scheme to help get more kids into American Football.

Bags of Help is run in partnership with environmental charity Groundwork, and sees grants raised from the sale of carrier bags awarded to thousands of local community projects every year. greenspace scotland is working with Groundwork to provide support to communities in Scotland. Since launching in 2015, Bags of Help has provided more than £63 million to over 20,000 local community projects.

Voting ran in stores throughout March and April 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.

Club Chair Amanda McDonald said: “The money will be used to buy new balls, replace damaged and worn out helmets and buy additional full starter packs to allow the club to continue to expand their offering and make sure that there continues to be no finanicial barriers to participation from interested young people. A huge thank you to the local shoppers at Tesco East Kilbride, Rutherglen and Burnside who voted us into first place in our local area!”

Tony McElroy, Tesco’s Head of Communications in Scotland, said: “Bags of Help has been a fantastic success and we’ve been overwhelmed by the response from customers. It’s such a special scheme because it’s local people who decide how the money will be spent in their community. We can’t wait to see the projects come to life.”

Emma Halliday, Community Enabler Coordinator at greenspace scotland, 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 local area. We are pleased to be able to be a part of the journey and provide support and encouragement to help local communities thrive.”

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