England Lioness and Manchester United forward Ella Toone has hailed a new community grant scheme after dedicating her success in the women's professional game to playing so much at a grassroots level.
Toone is a proud part of the Tesco Golden Grants campaign, which tomorrow will see shoppers in 100 large Tesco stores across the UK given the chance to take part in a lucky dip. The aim is to find the specially created gold versions of its iconic blue voting token which is worth £1million in grants to local good causes.
The forward told Mirror Football: “It was massive for me as I really want to give back as much as I can to local grassroots, local communities so as soon as they offered it to me, I couldn’t wait to get involved.”
Since 2016, Tesco has pledged £100m and has supported more than 50,000 projects through its community grants scheme, and Toone handed over the first £10,000 grant to Basildon group ATF (Achieve, Thrive, Flourish) as part of the Golden Grants campaign and the forward also went toe-to-toe with the kids there for a football match.
The scheme supports local community projects in the UK to fight holiday hunger, tackle mental health and support young people enabling programmes delivered like ATF which produce opportunities for young people to bring communities together.
Toone said: “It was the first one that we've given out so it was really special. Because I've given them myself that I could see how much that meant to them and how much it could help. It was nice to see the reaction on their faces.”
On her youth journey, Toone played for Blackburn Rovers, a club that benefited from Tesco community grants for kit and training facilities, she said: “[Without the grants] It would’ve been really difficult like it is for a lot of grassroots teams, to find the funding and to have the facilities and equipment.”
Grassroots sides often resort to getting the players fundraising: bag packing in Tesco, sponsored walks, family fun events, raffles and selling tea and coffees at the side of pitches to raise money.
“I wouldn't be where I am today. I wouldn't have been able to get on this journey that I'm on,” Toone continued. “But with these community grants, you can really see how much it means to them and how much you can do with the money.
"Giving them the facilities and the equipment they need to really try and participate in the sport.”
Ella Toone has teamed up with Tesco to launch its ‘Tesco Golden Community Grants Campaign’. This October Tesco will celebrate pledging £100m to good causes through its Community Grants scheme.
They are surprising 100 local projects each with a share of £1million and each one will receive a special £10,000 Golden Community Grant. For further information go to: www.tesco.com/communitygrants
