Tesco is getting ready to welcome customers to the opening of its new Express store in Vauxhall next week.
The Dumont store on Albert Embankment will open its doors on 22nd February, and in addition to providing 16 new jobs, it brings with it food bank donations and Tesco’s Bags of Help funding opportunities for local good causes.
Syed Ahmad, the store’s manager, said that supporting the community’s residents will be hugely important to store staff in the coming years.
He added: “Although it has been a difficult time for many, we’re hugely excited to be opening our Dumont Express store to help support the local community.
“The store opening will provide a real boost for Vauxhall, helping to employ and train local people, and it’ll be a pleasure to see our staff grow and develop.
“We are really looking forward to welcoming so much new talent and experience into our Tesco Team.
“We will of course also promote Tesco’s Bags of Help scheme, with the aim of donating thousands of pounds for local good causes that can help the community to flourish.”
Local groups are invited to apply for community funding through Bags of Help, Tesco’s blue token voting scheme which sees three local projects voted on by customers in store every three months, with first place awarded £2,000, second place £1,000 and third place £500.
To date Bags of Help has provided £6.1million to 2,622 projects across London since its launch in 2016. Over £103,000 has been given directly to 44 different groups in Vauxhall, including In-Deep Community Task Force who received £950 in 2020 to offer music therapy sessions to special needs schools in the area.
Although voting is currently not taking place due to the pandemic, organisations can still apply for grants: www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp.
With England currently under lockdown restrictions during the pandemic, Syed stressed that safety at the store will be of the highest importance.
Syed said: “As always, the safety of our customers and colleagues is our number one priority and we’ve ensured social distancing measures are put in place to ensure everyone is kept safe.
“We are doing this while still offering the community our best service and broad range of products such as fresh food and food to go – and we look forward to welcoming our first customers.”
One of the other Tesco initiatives that will benefit the Vauxhall community is the Community Food Connection Scheme, which is dedicated to ensuring that the most vulnerable within our communities are supplied with essentials even if they cannot leave home. Since its launch in 2015, the Tesco Community Food Connection Scheme has donated over 38,000 meals to local charities in Vauxhall.
The Community Food Connection scheme is run in partnership with food redistribution charity FareShare. Each month more than a million meals of food are donated across the country.
