Bereaved Plymouth children helped by much-needed grant

Children in Plymouth who have experienced the death of a parent who served in the British Armed Forces are receiving support in their bereavement, helped by a grant from Tesco.

Scotty’s Little Soldiers, the charity for bereaved British Forces children and young people, received £1,500 from the Tesco Community Grant scheme after customers in local stores voted for the charity, to support the Children of the Fallen project in Plymouth.

The charity was founded by widow Nikki Scott in 2010, following the death of her husband, Corporal Lee Scott, in Afghanistan, after seeing the devastating impact on their two young children. The charity provides support and guidance to hundreds of bereaved military children and young people throughout their childhood.

Services offered to Scotty’s Little Soldiers members include access to child bereavement support, guidance to parents and carers, personal education and learning assistance (including grants), and fun activities such as holiday respite breaks and group events.

Nikki said: “We’re really grateful to Tesco for this funding. Our mission is to provide relief from the effects of bereavement to young people who have experienced the death of a parent who served with the Armed Forces.

“We want every bereaved Forces child to have access to the very best health and wellbeing support, outstanding development opportunities and the chance to smile again.

“Without kind public assistance like this from organisations such as Tesco, we wouldn’t be able to provide this much-needed support. It means so much to the children to know they are part of a supportive community that helps keep them connected to the military and that their parents’ service and sacrifice have not been forgotten.”

Scotty’s Little Soldiers is one of thousands of projects that Tesco Community Grants have supported, and it feature in Tesco’s Community Impact Report, published this week, as an example of the supermarket’s work across the UK. Projects that tackle homelessness, support families of Servicepeople, encourage diversity and provide Covid 19 support are also highlighted.

The report, created in partnership with the charity Groundwork, which runs the Tesco Community Grants scheme, celebrates the successes of the funding programme, which has been helping communities since 2015. The report breaks down how the £100million of Community Grants was allocated over that time.

Since it began, Tesco has awarded £101,881,339 in funding to 50,880 community projects.  The grant awards were decided by 738,402,011 votes cast by Tesco customers in stores across the UK using the iconic blue tokens.

Breakdown of grants by project focus:

Tesco has a long association with the Armed Forces, dating back to Tesco founder Jack Cohen, and is a signatory to the Ministry of Defence’s Armed Forces Covenant. About 300 Tesco employees are members of the supermarket chain’s Armed Forces Network, and the supermarket is one of the largest employers of reservists and former service personnel.

Claire De Silva, Head of Community at Tesco, said: “We’re delighted that we can help groups such as Scotty’s Little Soldiers. Tesco Community Grants invites our customers to vote using their blue token for local schemes they feel are important to help our communities thrive, and it’s so good to see the impact that the funding makes.”

The Tesco Community Grants scheme awards funds to charities and community organisations that make a positive difference to their communities, with £500, £1,000 and £1,500 available. The scheme is run in partnership with the Groundwork charity.

Graham Duxbury, Groundwork’s UK Chief Executive, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Tesco to provide these much-needed funds, which will help to support local communities.”

To apply for a Tesco Community Grant, visit https://tescocommunitygrants.org.uk/

To access the full Impact Report, go to https://tescocommunitygrants.org.uk/what-weve-funded/