More than 50 local causes benefit from SPAR Community Cashback grants

With over 10,000 entries to its Community Cashback campaign this year, SPAR UK has awarded 54 charities and local causes across the UK grants of up to £10,000.

Left to right: Peter Dodding of James Hall & Co, Helen Gazard and Hannah Martin of Contact Hostel, amd SPAR independent retailer Paul Uppal.

Now running for three years, the campaign has seen SPAR provide funding for a variety of charity organisations including those that care for people in their communities.

This year the beneficiaries include:

• Contact Hostel, which provides support and accommodation to homeless teenage girls and young women in and around the Manchester area.

• Oliver’s Army, which provides assistance and therapy dogs to support children and adults with various conditions, from autism and ADHD to physical disabilities, in Scotland.

• St Luke’s Hospice, a charity that cares for people approaching the end of their life in Harrow and Brent.

• River & Sea Sense, which provides Water Safety Education and training sessions to schools, youth groups, and service organisations in North Wales.

• CAAP, a charity formed by a group of parents of children with additional needs, to support families to access activities during school holidays.

In Northern Ireland, 20 local organisations were chosen to receive a grant.

Ian Taylor, retail & brand development director at SPAR UK, said: “Our grant scheme is aimed at supporting and giving back to the communities where our stores are located. We’ve seen first-hand how much last year’s grant winners have benefited from this scheme and know that together we are making a real difference in communities.”

To launch the community grants, SPAR commissioned a study of 2,000 adults across the UK to discover what they felt made up the perfect community. Helpful neighbours, regular volunteers and a decent local pub came out top.

One in five of those polled (19%) help out at local organisations and charities in their area, with 30% previously volunteering in their neighbourhood. Of those, a quarter do so two or three times a week – most likely at charity shops (22%) or as part of community development schemes including litter picking and Citizens Advice volunteers (22%).

Nearly half (46%) volunteer because they want to make a difference, 43% like helping the people in their area, and 40% agree that there are people in their neighbourhood who deserve special recognition for helping others.