Digital News: Tesco - Bags of Help Scheme

In addition to the coverage we want to get at Demelza to find out about their sensory garden, we also want to include an element within the package which will tell the audience about the 'Bags of Help' scheme that Tesco have been running. This scheme works like the 'Community Matters' scheme by Waitrose which entails helping charities and raising funds by introducing the idea of tokens. Tesco have adapted this into their own scheme which involves choosing three shortlisted charities to support - guaranteeing them a minimum of £8,000 and a maximum of £12,000. The three charities are given a glass compartment which is labelled with the charity name. When customers receive a token after shopping at the store, they are encouraged to place it into one of the three compartments. The charity that gets the most token will win the top funds of £12,000 and the other two - £10,000 and £8,000. This is a great scheme as it raises a huge amount of money for all of the charities and promotes them to the public to encourage further donations. Demelza are one of the three shortlisted charities with the intention of using the funding to restore and completely renovate the garden area at the Sittingbourne hospice to create a sensory garden which will have lots of interactive features as well as being wheelchair accessible. By talking to a member of staff at the Tesco store in Sittingbourne, which we found out are hosting the token scheme, this will give us some background information to work with for our news piece. One of the managers, Daniel, has already said that they would be interested in filming a short interview with us to tell us more about the scheme itself and how it will benefit the charities involved. 

Here are the questions we have written for the interview: 

1. Tescos seem to be doing a lot of charity work at the moment, could you tell us more about what it is you are doing and where the money has come from? 

2. Can you tell us more about the Tesco 'Bags of Help' scheme?

3. How do you decide which charities get shortlisted?

4. Once they have been shortlisted, who decides which charity will win? 

5. What will the three shortlisted charities do with the money if they win?

6. Being a Sittingbourne branch, is this scheme specifically aimed at local charities and communities?

7. What are the benefits for Tesco?

8. Have you yourself been involved in the scheme?