Shopper selects kind-hearted children’s school in Portsmouth to receive thousands of pounds

Customers in the Old Portsmouth Express store were given the chance to take part in a lucky dip to find a specially created gold version of Tesco’s iconic blue voting token.

Havelock Community Centre was one of three good causes that shoppers could vote for to receive the £5,000 Golden Grant as part of Tesco’s Stronger Starts scheme.

When the gold token was found, red, silver and blue confetti rained down and the customer with the Midas touch selected Havelock Community Centre so that it could use the funds to continue supporting young people’s health and wellbeing.

The funding will go towards providing free fun holiday activities for children, with an outdoor sand-kitchen and indoor crafts, healthy food, and a chance for the adults to meet and chat.

Jennie Brent, Chair of Trustees at Havelock Community Centre, said: “We are so grateful to Tesco and their customers for choosing us to receive this generous grant. It will make such a difference to so many children’s lives in and around Portsmouth. The formative years in any person’s life are so important, and we will now get to work in using this money to help local children get as good a start in life as we can give them.”

One hundred Tesco stores across the country took part in the Golden Grants initiative on Saturday, with £500,000 being donated to good causes that help children and young people.

Golden Grants are awarded twice a year as part of the £5million Stronger Starts grant-giveaway programme in partnership with the charity Groundwork UK.

The grants 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, as well as purchasing equipment for healthy activities.

Jilla Nasser, manager at the Old Portsmouth Express store, said: “Our Golden Grants event was a really fun event, with colleagues and customers keen to get involved and be a part of choosing which local good cause received the £5,000 grant. It was a great way to bring our communities together for something really special!

“I’d like to say a big congratulations to Havelock Community Centre, and we hope the funding will help them to make a difference to many young lives within our community.”

Schools and children’s groups can apply via Groundwork for a Stronger Starts grant of £500, £1,000 or £1,500 by going to www.tescoplc.com/strongerstarts. Successful applications will go to a vote in their local Tesco store where customers choose which of the three projects they’d like to support by voting with a blue token.

Since Tesco launched its Community Grants programme in 2016, more than £100million has been given to more than 50,000 local schools and community groups.