WEEKE Primary School has announced it has bagged £2,000 from Tesco’s Bags of Help community grant scheme.

Bags of Help is run with environmental charity Groundwork, and sees grants awarded to thousands of local community projects every year. Since launching in 2015, it’s provided more than £75 million to over 25,000 local schemes.

Work will now begin on bringing the project to life.

The pupil led eco team are delighted to have received this money which will continue to support their work in making as many families and friends of Weeke Primary School aware of the impact of every action they take when they throw something away. This money will help the school purchase additional waste and recycling bins, increase their composting and vegetable patches, building a bin store in our car park and various other eco initiatives.

One pupil from the eco team, said “We are so excited to have received this money to support our projects, we hope it has a really big impact at our school”. The school has just achieved its Bronze Award from Eco Schools and with this money are working towards the Green Flag award in the future.

Mrs Libby Manktelow, class teacher, who leads the Eco Team, said “Thank you to everyone who voted for our project, we were delighted when we found out and will really help us deliver our aims”. The children were presented with a cheque by Ruth Kirkby, Tesco Community Champion; Winchester Extra, and had an opportunity to find out more about the pupils plans.

Voting ran in stores earlier this year 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.

Alec Brown, Tesco’s head of community, said: “Bags of Help contributes funds to community projects up and down the country and we’ve been overwhelmed by the response from customers voting in their local stores. We’re looking forward to seeing more projects brought to life.”

Groundwork’s chief executive, Graham Duxbury, 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 area. We are pleased to be able to be a part of the journey and provide support and encouragement to help local communities thrive.”

In addition, to mark Tesco’s 100th year, they have announced two special voting rounds, Tesco Bags of Help Centenary Grants, in summer and winter 2019 with larger grant amounts available.