Tesco is getting ready to welcome customers to the opening of a new Express store in Battersea this week.

The Prince of Wales Drive Express store will open its doors on 26th February, and in addition to providing 15 new jobs, it brings with it food bank donations and funding opportunities for local good causes.

Gowthaman Selvarathnam, the store’s manager, said that supporting the community’s residents will be hugely important to store staff in the coming years.

He added: “The opening of the store will give a real boost to the community, not only offering people jobs, but the opportunity to learn and grow in their roles.

“It’s been a really difficult time for everyone over the last year, so we’re hugely excited to be opening the store and giving something back to the local area.

“The new team is bursting with talent and we all can’t wait to get started.

“We will of course also promote Tesco’s Bags of Help scheme, with the aim of donating thousands of pounds for local good causes that can help the community to flourish.”

Local groups are invited to apply for community funding through Bags of Help, Tesco’s blue token voting scheme which sees three local projects voted on by customers in store every three months, with first place awarded £2,000, second place £1,000 and third place £500.

To date Bags of Help has provided £6.1million to 2,622 projects across London since 2016, with over £87,000 of grants provided directly to 34 different groups in Battersea. Among the projects to benefit from the funding is Christ Church CE Primary School, which received £4,000 in 2019 to create a ‘Dream Garden’ for their pupils, families and the local community to use.

Although voting is currently not taking place due to the pandemic, organisations can still apply for grants: www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp.

With England currently under lockdown restrictions during the pandemic, Gowthaman stressed that safety at the store will be of the highest importance.

Gowthaman said: “The safety of our customers and colleagues is our number one priority and we have been working hard to introduce the social distancing measures designed to keep everyone safe.

“We are doing this while still offering the community our best service and broad range of products such as fresh food and food to go – and we look forward to welcoming our first customers.”

One of the other Tesco initiatives that will benefit the Vauxhall community is the Community Food Connection Scheme, which is dedicated to ensuring that the most vulnerable within our communities are supplied with essentials even if they cannot leave home.

Since its launch in 2015, the Tesco Community Food Connection Scheme has donated nearly 29,000 meals to local charities in Battersea, part of the 49,000 meals provided to projects based in Wandsworth borough.

The Community Food Connection scheme is run in partnership with food redistribution charity FareShare. Each month more than a million meals of food are donated across the country.

To find out about the scheme, please visit: https://www.tescoplc.com/sustainability/product/food-waste/supporting-customers-communities/community-food-connection/