A state-of-the-art community kitchen at Rhyl Primary School is now offering its services to people in the community thanks to Tesco’s Bags of Help grant scheme.
The Camden project, which was awarded £12,000 five years ago, was one of the very first community groups to benefit from the Bags of Help scheme, which is currently marking its 5th anniversary.
During the school day, the building is used by teachers, children, parents and carers at Rhyl Primary School. Outside of school hours, the kitchen is open to locals for workshops and events focussing on cooking skills and nutrition.
The grant from Tesco has made the community kitchen possible for both Rhyl Primary School and the wider community of Camden.
This specially designed classroom is a flexible teaching space, fully equipped with commercial catering equipment. It opens onto an outdoor classroom and food garden designed to introduce children to the idea of ‘plot to plate’.
Thomas Moggach, Founder and Project Lead at Rhyl Community Kitchen said: “The community kitchen is for the benefit of everyone, young and old – our pupils, parents and the wider community.
“Our aim was to provide high quality food education to all of our pupils and parents in the community, while offering a resource for local community groups, caterers and food entrepreneurs to use.
We’re hugely grateful of the grant provided by Tesco, and now that we are open we hope we can continue to provide our service to the local community long into the future”.
Over the last five years, 2,523 groups across London have had reason to celebrate after receiving grants from Bags of Help – which is celebrating its birthday this month. In Twickenham alone, 61 groups received grants worth up to £141,519 from the scheme.
Since the launch of scheme, which is run in partnership with community charity Groundwork, £86million in total has been donated to 37,000 projects across the UK.
Keith Jackson, Communications Manager at Tesco, said: “Over the last five years, we’ve been delighted to have been able to support so many charities, community groups and organisations from every corner of the UK.
“It’s great to hear about how Rhyl Primary School has spent their grant, and we hope it encourages others to apply for support too.”
Graham Duxbury, CEO of Groundwork, said: “Working with Tesco has enabled us to make sure that much-needed funding reaches local groups who really need it.
“Together, over the last 12 months alone, we’ve been able to help a multitude of local organisations supporting our local communities through the pandemic, and we’re excited to see what the next five years, and beyond, will bring.”
The successful scheme is due to relaunch in April as ‘Tesco Community Grants’, and charities, community groups and not for profit organisations can apply through Tesco’s charity partner Groundwork. Grants of up to £2,000 are now available through the programme.
