THREE charities have been given £500 each for their ongoing work within the community.

Jack’s Supermarket, on Four Acre Lane, part of the Tesco family, launched its Jack’s Supports scheme to donate proceeds from the sale of carrier bags to local good causes.

Usually, four charities are selected to receive £250, and voting units would be placed in store where shoppers could nominate one charity to receive an extra donation.

However, as voting in store has closed due to social distancing measures, each selected charity will instead receive an increased donation of £500 to help those whose usual fundraising efforts may have been impacted by the pandemic.

The three winning charities are:

Apex Charitable Trust Ltd, The Plan Bee Community coffee shop that is currently providing meals to vulnerable adults in the St Helens community who would otherwise go hungry.

Sexton Avenue Community Allotment Garden CIC, a new and large community garden in St Helens, hoping to become a community hub for all.

Tunza’s Pride, a local organisation supporting vulnerable children and families in the St Helens area by running various activities in the Tunza Centre.

Kim Hughes, CEO of Apex Charitable Trust, said: “The team at Apex Charitable Trust’s Plan Bee Community coffee shop in St Helens are thrilled to be a recipient of the Jack’s Supports Scheme. We play a bital role in supporting the vulnerable over 60’s who live in St Helens and are struggling financially, isolated or are shielding. Our ‘My Meal’ project enables us to deliver nutritious meals prepared by Plan Bee to their doors once or twice a week for up to 8 weeks. The cash donation from Jack’s enables us to provide this for the community.”

Craig Robinson, store manager of Jack’s St Helens, said: “The Jack’s Supports scheme has been running for a while now and it’s important to everyone at Jack’s to be able to give back to the local community who have always been so kind to us. As charity fundraising has been massively affected by the pandemic, we are delighted that we are able to offer more support to organisations than ever before.

“We strongly recommended anyone who’s considering applying for the next round to definitely get involved, we want to support as many local charities as possible, especially during such difficult times.”

To be considered for the next round of Jack’s Supports funding you can apply by visiting https://jackssupports.org.uk/.