Funding Alert: Tesco Fruit & Veg Grants

Funding available: Up to £1,500
Applications: Open on a rolling basis
Particularly wanted: Applications from parts of North Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire

Tesco’s Fruit & Veg Grants, which replace the former Tesco Stronger Starts community grants programme, are open to organisations supporting children and young people.

The programme provides grants through Tesco’s familiar in-store blue token voting scheme. Three projects are selected for each local voting area, with the project receiving the most votes awarded up to £1,500, second place up to £1,000, and third place up to £500.

Who can apply?

The programme is open to a wide range of organisations, including:

Schools and PTAs
Voluntary and community organisations
Registered charities
Youth and sports groups
Social enterprises
Parish and town councils
Community Interest Companies (CICs)
Other eligible not-for-profit and public organisations

CICs must be limited by guarantee and have been operating for at least two years.

What can the funding support?

Projects need to support children and young people and include an element linked to healthy food, fruit or vegetables. This doesn’t mean projects have to be entirely about food.

Examples could include:

Fruit or healthy snacks for children at sports training
Breakfast, after-school or holiday clubs
Holiday hunger projects
Cooking clubs and cooking equipment
Gardening and growing projects
Healthy food at youth group sessions
Activities helping families cook healthy meals on a budget

The programme specifically recognises youth and sports clubs, cooking and growing activities, holiday provision and other projects which combine healthy food with activities supporting children’s wellbeing.

📍 Applications particularly wanted locally

There are currently opportunities to increase the number of applications from several local areas.

North Lincolnshire

Gainsborough and surrounding villages
Brigg and surrounding villages
Scunthorpe and surrounding villages
Barton-upon-Humber

East Yorkshire

Withernsea and surrounding villages
Hornsea and surrounding villages
Beverley and surrounding villages

Groups operating in these areas are particularly encouraged to consider applying.

How does it work?

Applications can be submitted online and the programme operates on a rolling basis, with projects shortlisted for customer voting approximately every four months. Successful shortlisted projects then appear in participating Tesco stores, where customers vote using blue tokens.

Groups can apply again once a previous grant has been spent and the required completion process has been followed, making the programme potentially useful for organisations with ongoing activities.

Applicants may also be able to seek support for different elements of their work over time. For example, an initial application could support equipment for a children’s cooking project, followed by a later application towards the costs of delivering activities once the first grant has been completed.

Please note: Although 8 October 2026 has been identified locally as the next useful cut-off for the forthcoming round, published information describes Tesco Fruit & Veg Grants as a rolling programme with no overall application deadline. Groups hoping to be considered for the next available voting round should therefore apply as soon as possible.