MORE than 22 organisations in Evesham and nearby have received £500 from a new scheme by Tesco Bags of Help. The fund was set up to help local communities quickly in the current Covid-19 crisis and given to those supporting vulnerable people.

Among those receiving a boost was Ourside Youth group, who was given the money to help their outreach initiative, to enable them to keep in contact with the young people of Evesham.

Evesham and District Mental Health Support Services received two grants, which they’ve used to help run a Covid 19 helpline, 9am-9pm seven days a week for people with mental health issues.

They have also used this grant to support face to face counselling by providing PPE, sanitising products and additional signage.

Caring Hands in the Vale have also been awarded two grants to keep in touch with the vulnerable and provide food, household and baby products. Evesham Adventure Playground received £500 to assist with their ‘Bags of Play’ for the summer.

Evesham Sea Cadets were awarded £500 from the Covid-19 grant to allow them to set up online sessions.

A spokesman said: “The grant will support the unit’s IT equipment enabling the unit to increase virtual support to our Cadets and Volunteers.

"This will be a fantastic boost to the unit and we are truly thankful for such support during these challenging times.”

Pershore Volunteer centre was also given money to help with training and security checking coronavirus volunteers.

Lindsay Roach, community champion, Evesham Tesco, said: “During these very different times we want to support the local community in any way we can but the Covid 19 community grant has enabled lots of groups to spread the assistance available to more people in a very varied way.”