Student volunteering charity bags £1,000 with help from shoopers

A Cardiff-based charity has bagged £1,000 to support the work of a social group for adults with disabilities and mental health conditions through Tesco’s Bags of Help local grant scheme.

Student Volunteering Cardiff (SVC) was established in 1970 and operates several volunteering projects supporting disadvantaged adults in the Cardiff area. This includes the Whale of a Time Wednesday project which has benefited directly from the Tesco funding.

The money from Tesco has safeguarded venue hire at Cathays Methodist Church for the year and allowed the group to purchase a range of materials that can be used by volunteers and beneficiaries who attend the session for years to come.

Adrienne Earls, Manager at SVC, said: “Our volunteers create a fun, safe and supported environment where the adults can socialise and engage together. The funding has allowed us to continue the fantastic work our volunteers do making a difference to vulnerable adults’ lives.”

“We were delighted to receive the funding as it has allowed us to offer more stability for the project,” she added. “We now have a cupboard full of new materials, rather than a few tired resources which had been bought for other projects and loaned to the Whale of a Time Wednesday group.”

Tesco works with Groundwork on its Bags of Help funding initiative, which sees grants raised from carrier bag sales being awarded to thousands of local community projects every year.

Rhodri Evans, Tesco’s communications manager for Wales, said: “The funding for Student Volunteering Cardiff is a great example of how Bags of Help can make a real difference in communities around Wales.

“We’re really looking forward to driving forward new initiatives in 2019 as Bags of Help continues to grow and help even more groups across the region.”

Since launching in 2015, Bags of Help has awarded more than £56 million to more than 16,000 projects all over the UK.

Customers are able to vote for a Bags of Help project in store using a blue token given to them at the check-out. At the end of voting period, votes are collected and three groups in each of Tesco’s regions will be awarded funding.