Christmas appeal to Dundrum shoppers

DUNDRUM Town Centre will be taking part in Tesco Ireland’s annual Christmas Appeal that was launched last week.

Tesco is calling on shoppers to support families in need in their local community by donating a product in participating stores nationwide on Friday, December 1 and Saturday 2.

Over €46,000 worth of food was donated by Dublin shoppers in 2016. Tesco stores across the county will be donating items to a variety of causes in their local areas.

Shoppers in Dundrum will be helping one of the Dublin charities that has been chosen this year.

Cheeverstown House is a voluntary organisation that provides a wide range of residential, respite and day services to almost 400 children and adults.

This includes residential places in Cheeverstown Centre with the remaining places in houses throughout the locality.

Cheeverstown House provides a further 17 respite places as well as flexible in-home support; a range of early childhood, education and day care services for children; vocational training and employment programmes for adults.

Services are provided to a large extent in the Dublin South West region of the Health Services Executive; mostly in South Dublin Council Area.

Over the two days of the Tesco appeal, a ‘shopping list’ of potential items to donate will be available for shoppers in store.

Non-perishable foods are paramount for local charitable organisations with tea bags, biscuits, breakfast cereals and tinned goods top of the list.

The annual appeal has been extended this year to include toiletries, nappies, small clothing items and toys as well as food items to meet the needs of the local community.

Customers are encouraged to pick up just one item as they shop and donate it to the Christmas Appeal Trolley at the front of the store on their way out. 

 Christine Heffernan, Corporate Affairs Director Tesco Ireland, said: “Our Christmas Appeal is a really important milestone for us each year and we are proud to say that we have collected over €400,000 worth of food for families since 2014 through this appeal alone.

“Christmas is one of the happiest times of year for most families.

“For others, however, it can be a really difficult and local charitable organisations really help families in need during the season.

“Our customers have been so generous every year and this year, we have 125 partner causes on board to collect items over the weekend.

“We would encourage anyone who shops to donate whatever they can in store.” 

 All of the items donated during the appeal in Tesco stores will be given to 125 partner causes from the Tesco surplus food donations programme which is run in partnership with FoodCloud.

These organisations will volunteer in store to collect the items donated over the weekend.

Some of the organisations benefiting from the appeal include Peter McVerry, St Vincent de Paul, Foroige and Cork Foyer. 

 To support your local charitable organisation through the Tesco Christmas Appeal, visit your local Tesco store on Friday, December 1 or on Saturday 2 between 11am and 7pm and make any donation possible.