Tesco community champion in Brent Cross Trish Darby is appealing for local charities and good causes to contact the store for support after a challenging year for local people.
Trish has worked at the store for 26 years next month, supporting local charities and good causes like Mapledown School in Claremont Road, Cricklewood, which caters for pupils with learning difficulties and autism. Thanks to Trish, a choir formed by the school was able to come into the store to sing, which helped to boost their confidence.
Sadly, the pandemic has meant that many local activities have had to be put on hold, but as the world reopens, Trish is looking for more local groups to support.
And this is getting off to a fine start, after a successful Tesco Food Collection at the Brent Cross Tesco Superstore in Tilling Way earlier this month, where long-life food was donated by customers and staff in support of charities FareShare and the Trussell Trust.
Trish said: “While we have not been able to do as much in the community during the pandemic, I’ve been focusing my attention on looking after my colleagues as much as possible. Little things, like drawing on our masks and staff awards, have really helped to boost morale at such a challenging time – and this impacts on our customers too.
“I’d like to thank all of our customers for supporting our Food Collection so generously. Every little really does help. I’m always looking for more organisations we can support locally, so please get in touch with us if you need some help.”
Trish and the rest of the store team are also backing Tesco’s new ‘Buy One to Help a Child’ scheme which aims to provide three million meals across the UK via charity partner FareShare.
The new scheme builds on Tesco’s existing food redistribution programme with the charity, which last year saw Tesco provide more than 29 million meals of surplus food, with the supermarket making a donation to FareShare for every piece of fresh fruit and vegetables bought in store until Sunday 8th August.
Trish added: “We know that demand for support with food donations has been higher than ever before over the course of the pandemic, and so this scheme is really important. Every child – and every adult – needs a good healthy meal, and we hope our customers will take the opportunity to try some new fruit and vegetables at the same time as supporting the campaign.”
