Dementia care facility hoping to bag a cash boost that will help residents to grow

One of Grimsby's leading specialist dementia care facilities is bidding to bag a cash boost to build allotment areas for its residents.

Cranwell Court in Grimsby is among three local causes that are in with a chance of winning the cash award from Tesco's Bags of Help initiative.

Cranwell provides specialist dementia care and care for vulnerable older people. It is operated by L&H Homes, which is part of Longhurst Group - one of the leading housing associations in the Midlands and East of England.

The centre wants to use the cash to finish an allotment area in the grounds of its residential unit and build a sensory area and allotment plot for residents of its Enhanced Dementia unit.

Jacky Aisthorpe of Cranwell Court, said: "Previously, we have taken residents to an allotment off-site, where they were able to look at the different fruit and vegetables that were growing. The experience was so successful that it inspired us to create our own plots, for the benefit of all residents, all year round.

"Winning this grant would mean so much to us; it would enable our residents to garden independently and grow their own vegetables. Keeping them active in the garden also gives them responsibilities and an enhanced sense of pride and satisfaction, as well as improving their health and wellbeing

"We have residents with different levels of dementia so the allotment would allow many of them to do daily gardening activities while the sensory area would allow others with more enhanced needs to have the pleasure of feeling, touching, smelling, tasting and engaging with their surroundings."

Tesco teamed up with Groundwork to launch the community funding scheme, which sees grants of £4,000, £2,000 and £1,000 raised from carrier bag sales in Tesco stores awarded to local community projects.

Three groups in every Tesco region have been shortlisted to receive the cash award, with shoppers at branches in Grimsby and Cleethorpes voting for which local cause they think should take away the top grant.

Voting is open throughout November, with customers choosing their chosen cause with a token that is given to them at the check-out each time they shop.

Tesco's Bags of Help project has already delivered over £60 million to more than 18,000 projects across the UK.

Alec Brown, Head of Community at Tesco, added: "Bags of Help has been a fantastic success and we've been overwhelmed by the response from customers. It's such a special scheme because it's local people who decide how the money will be spent in their community. There are some fantastic projects on the shortlists and we can't wait to see these come to life in hundreds of communities."

To find out more, visit www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp.