City Year UK is delighted to announce it has bagged £1,000 from Tesco’s Bags of Help community grant scheme which will support its work in the West Midlands. Bags of Help is run in partnership with environmental charity Groundwork, and sees grants raised from the sale of carrier bags awarded to thousands of local community projects every year. Since launching in 2015, it’s provided more than £48 million to over 13,000 local community projects.

Millions of shoppers have voted in Tesco stores up and down the country and it can now be revealed that City Year UK has been awarded £1,000 in the West Midlands. Work will now begin on bringing the project to life. The money will go towards City Year UK’s Book Buddies programme, which is aimed at improving literacy in schools by supporting the charity’s young volunteer mentors who are serving full-time as mentors, tutors and role models.

Gordon Higginson, City Year UK’s Director of Service Excellence, said: “We’re delighted to have been awarded this funding for our Book Buddies programme. Our volunteers have dedicated a year of their lives to tackling low social mobility and educational inequality and the support from Tesco will allow our literacy programme to benefit more pupils in the West Midlands.”

Alec Brown, Tesco’s Head of Community, said: “Bags of Help has been a fantastic success and we’ve been overwhelmed by the response from customers. It’s such a special scheme because it’s local people who decide how the money will be spent in their community. We can’t wait to see the projects come to life.”

Voting ran in stores throughout January and February 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.

Groundwork’s National Chief Executive, Graham Duxbury, said: “Bags of Help continues to enable local communities up and down the UK 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.”

Funding is available to community groups and charities looking to fund local projects that bring benefits to communities. Anyone can nominate a project and organisations can apply online.