Tesco grants give big boost to North London community

Friends of Graham Street Park was able to celebrate after receiving a grant, which help the charity provide free Forest School sessions for local children in the new community orchard in Graham Street Park.

The sessions allowed urban children to embrace nature in a safe open space, they planted vegetables, learnt about the newly established community orchard, unravelled the mysteries of composting, became budding authorities on mini-beasts and unleashed their creativity making nature-inspired keepsakes.

The charity applied to the Tesco Stronger Starts scheme, which awards grants to charities and community organisations, and were successful in winning £1,000 grant to run the nature club in which they conduct gardening, environmental learning and eco-friendly crafting in the outdoors.

Spokesperson from the charity, Kirstie Wielandt, said: "The demand for these sessions was simply incredible. In just three days, we had a whopping 200 local families signing up. It's clear our community is craving more outdoor adventures and hands-on learning. We’re so grateful for the opportunity to get this project off the ground

"We’re really looking forward to hopefully developing a longer-term weekend forest school sessions programme in due course."

The Stronger Starts scheme, in partnership with the Groundwork charity, aims to support Islington community projects and good causes in the coming years, with thousands of pounds to give away.

Claire De Silva, Head of Community at Tesco, said: “We’re delighted that we can help groups and charities like WFDA. Stronger Starts invites our customers to use their blue tokens to vote for local schemes they feel will benefit children and young people, and it’s so good to see the impact that the funding makes.”

North London shoppers can support their local school and children’s groups by dropping the Tesco blue token they receive at checkout into the relevant voting box as they leave the store.

For further information about Stronger Starts is available at https://tescostrongerstarts.org.uk

More information about Stronger Starts is available at https://tescostrongerstarts.org.uk