A Tesco worker and her store have been praised for their ongoing work helping local groups and charities, as well as supporting wider campaigns to help feed families during the coronavirus pandemic.
Donna McCotter is the Community Champion at the Yorkgate Tesco in North Belfast and has been in the role since 2019.
Since then, she has led her team to continuously support more than 27 local groups over the past two years.
Through projects such as the Tesco Community Grants scheme, Donna has worked closely with local area partnerships to help identify initiatives that the Tesco Yorkgate team can support.
Some of these include Marie Curie Cancer Care, North Belfast Advice Partnership, The People's Kitchen Belfast, iAssist NI, Women’s Aid Belfast & Lisburn and many more.
Donna said: “I’m hugely proud of the relationships we’ve built across the local community and each one is working hard to provide valuable services for families and residents throughout Belfast.
“I have had some fantastic moments from over the years in this role, such as forging inter-community relationships with Tesco, local charities and other agencies, providing food parcels for families, supporting and promoting healthy, fresh and affordable meals for all.
“This sort of support has been hugely vital over the past year or so, particularly with the pandemic, but I’ve been so proud of our team at Yorkgate Tesco lending a hand to those who need it.”
Donna and her Community Champion team will now be overseeing Tesco’s latest campaign, Buy One To Help A Child in conjunction with charity partner FareShare, to make a donation of a meal to feed children this summer for every piece of fresh fruit and veg bought in the Belfast store from July 19 to August 8.
The scheme builds on Tesco’s existing food redistribution programme with FareShare, which last year saw the supermarket chain provide more than 29 million meals of surplus food.
This latest project has been warmly welcomed by FareShare's Lindsay Boswell, CBE, who said it would help supply thousands of groups working with children and families across the UK.
He added: “In the last year, FareShare has doubled the amount of food we’re providing to people struggling to get enough to eat. While the lockdown may be easing, we know that food insecurity remains high.
“That’s why we are so pleased to see Tesco and its customers helping us to support children who need it.
"It will make a huge difference to so many people that have been affected by the pandemic.”
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