The Asda Foundation is celebrating 30 years of helping local communities with a special birthday grants to help even more community groups, charities and good causes.
Since 1988, the Foundation – Asda's charitable arm – has given more than £35 million to good causes in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. And this year our birthday grant programme will give an additional £300,000 to organisations, charities and good causes near our stores.
Our chief customer officer Andy Murray said: "We're proud to fund everything from Christmas parties to celebrate the festive season, to domestic abuse services supporting families in incredibly difficult situations, to regenerating community centres to provide a place for people to come together.
"So much has been achieved since the Foundation was founded in 1988 and we will continue to work hard to connect with local communities, to understand the challenges they face and seek out opportunities to invest in and help transform them for the better wherever we can."
All our larger stores have a community champion who works with local groups, volunteering their time and helping them apply for grants. Just one recent example was a £28,000 grant to Antrim Family Caring Centre which helped provide them with a new minibus.
This centre is a vital hub for the community – and the minibus has allowed many more local people to access the centre's services including a creche, training programmes and mental health support.
Our Antrim store's community champion Barbara Logan helped the group apply for the grant and teamed up with store manager Robert Ryans to present the cheque. The charity said the minibus will 'transform the lives' of local people. Read more about it here.
Since 2015, the Asda Foundation has funded £597,940 in grants to charities and good causes in Wales.
One of our Welsh community champions is Karen Thomas from our Tonypandy store. She's helped lots of local good causes, helping them secure grants worth more than £34,000 since 2015. One of the groups she works with, Canolfan Pentre, are so grateful for her help that they organised an appreciation day for her!
Thanks to the fantastic efforts of volunteers, Canolfan Pentre has become an important hub for the elderly and young since they took it over from the council, and Karen has helped them hugely almost from the start – mucking in every week and also giving them access to funding from the Asda Foundation. They were overwhelmed by a surprise £10,000 Asda Foundation donation at Christmas 2017.
Elizabeth Arbuckle, community champion at Asda Toryglen, has helped local causes for many years – and last year alone her store delivered grants worth more than £40,000.
One local group she's supported is the Healthy n Happy community centre, which hosts everything from mother and toddler groups to exercise classes for elderly people. An Asda Foundation grant worth £26,000 paid for a new cafe and kitchen.
A £10,000 Asda Foundation grant helped St Michael's Hospice in Harrogate get a makeover
The donation has been used to decorate, furnish and install air conditioning in the hospice's reception area, therapy rooms and day centre.
You can find out more about the work of the Asda Foundation here.
