Tesco is welcoming customers to its new Express store in Woodside.
The store opened its doors for the first time the morning of Thursday 8 February.
The new store will provide 18 new jobs as well as bringing with it food bank donations and grant funding opportunities for local good causes.
Sasithar Thangarasa, the store manager, said “We are delighted to be opening this new Tesco Express store and welcoming customers through our doors.
“This new Tesco Express will be serving local customers a wide range of products, from fresh food to food-to-go. We hope to provide a fantastic service for the area and have recruited 18 new local colleagues for this store.
He added: “In this store, customers will be able to participate in Tesco’s Stronger Starts scheme, by using the blue tokens we are handing out to vote for a school or local community group to receive some extra financial help. This scheme is designed to help provide healthy food and activities that boost young people’s mental and physical wellbeing and we encourage all of our customers to nominate a school or group for this grant programme.”
Local schools and community groups are invited to apply for community funding through Tesco’s Stronger Starts, Tesco’s blue token voting scheme which sees three local projects voted on by customers in store every three months, with first place awarded £1,500, second place £1,000 and third place £500.
The new Express store will also participate in the Community Food Connection scheme, which redistributes surplus food to charities and community groups from every Tesco store at the end of each day.
Since its launch in 2016, the Tesco Community Food Connection Scheme has donated more than 145 million meals to charities across the UK.
This scheme is run in partnership with food redistribution charity FareShare. Each month more than one million meals’ worth of food are donated across the country.
