Twenty-six celebrate scooping share of £52,000 funding boost from Central England Co-operative

Posted by nathan lloyd | Published: 10/04/2017


Twenty-six charities and groups are celebrating after sharing £52,000 in the latest payout from Central England Co-operative’s Community Dividend Fund.

A diverse range of projects picked from across 16 counties have been handed funding, with the largest single amount given being £5,000.

Hall Meadow Primary School, in Kettering, Great Glen Methodist Church, in Leicester, and Rosliston Astronomy Group, in South Derbyshire, were handed the maximum grant of £5,000, with a total of £52,000 handed out to 26 good causes across 16 counties.

Rosliston Astronomy Group will use the grant to pay for special interactive screens and a new pathway to help people young and old learn and gain access to an observatory as part of ongoing effort to teach more in the community about astronomy.

Great Glen Methodist Church will buy new chairs to help benefit a range of community activities that operate from the church, whereas Hall Meadow Primary School will use the cash to pay for a brand new floor.

1st Rolleston Scouts, 1st Ratby Scouts, and 1st Lichfield St Chad’s Scout Group have all been handed cash boosts to pay for a range of new equipment.

Ratby Allotments Association and Thorpe Acre Residents Association will use grants to pay for new raise beds to boost the local community.

Oadby Owls Hawks Under 11s, Whittington Junior Football Club, Wilnecote Cricket Club, and Sprowston Girls Football Club will all be donning new kits thanks to the Community Dividend Fund.

Other groups handed grants include Friends of Belper Parks, in Derby, to pay for a new community beehive, £2,500 for new electrical appliances to help support a newly launch breakfast and after school clubs in Corby, balance bikes for youngsters in Rugby, and £1,755 or a new radio system for a group who work with the local
authority and emergency services during civil emergencies such as severe weather or catastrophic incidents or evacuations in Birmingham.

Grants of between £100 and £5,000 are handed out every three months to a wide range of applicants.

The fund guarantees that at least one per cent of the Society’s trading profit is reinvested in local communities in a bid to help projects to thrive across its trading area of 16 counties from the Midlands to the East Coast.

Martyn Cheatle, Chief Executive of Central England Co-operative, said: “The Community Dividend reflects a key principle of our society, in that we reward the loyalty of our customers by investing in and supporting local communities.

“I would like to urge all of our members to get in touch and put forward a community cause close to their heart for the Community Dividend scheme.”

People can apply for funding by heading online and visiting https://communities.centralengland.coop/ or heading in store to pick up an application form.

Potential applicants have to have been a Central England Co-operative member for six months, the project should be in the trading area of a Central England Co-operative store and all applications will need a referee.

Becoming a member of Central England Co-operative offers a whole host of benefits ranging from collecting points every time you spend in store to earn a share of the profits, access to members activities and community initiatives including the Community Dividend Fund, which hands out grants of up to £5,000 to charities and good
causes across the Society’s trading estate.

Find out how to become a Central England Co-operative member by calling 0800 0501 601, emailing members@centralengland.coop or visiting https://www.members.coop


Notes to editors

About Central England Co-operative

Central England Co-operative is one of the largest independent retail co-operative societies in the UK. It is a modern, forward-looking organisation employing over 8,000 staff, with projected gross sales of £958million for 2016/17. The Society recently celebrated being named Leading Co-operative of the Year 2016 by Co-operatives UK. The Society’s principal areas of activity are food, funeral services, and property. Central England Co-operative has more than 430 trading outlets across 16 counties including; West Midlands, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.  The Society has an ambitious food store development programme for 2017.
Central England Co-operative is proud of its reputation for ethical business practices and corporate responsibility.  It is a member of Business in the Community, the membership organisation that stands for responsible business, and has also won many business awards for excellence.  The Society supports a number of charities including Newlife Foundation for Disabled Children and invests a percentage of its trading profit into local communities.
Becoming a member of Central England Co-operative offers a whole host of benefits ranging from collecting points every time you spend in store to earn a share of the profits, access to members activities and community initiatives including the Community Dividend Fund, which hands out grants of up to £5,000 to charities and good causes across the Society’s trading estate.
Find out how to become a Central England Co-operative member by calling 0800 0501 601, emailing members@centralengland.coop or visiting https://www.members.coop

For more information visit http://www.centralengland.coop follo,w Central England Co-operative on Twitter: @mycoopfood, and on Facebook: facebook.com/centralenglandcooperative

Rob Smyth – PR officer - Central England Co-operative - 01543 414140
Email – publicrelations@centralengland.coop