Kind-hearted colleagues at 15 Milton Keynes Tesco stores have raised more than £1,600 to help families affected by the Walnut Tree fire.
At around 12pm on Tuesday 19th July, emergency services were called to a devastating fire in Walnut Tree, Milton Keynes.
The fire left several homes and a nursery completely destroyed.
During the fire, Tesco colleagues from the local store were on hand to give £500 worth of drinks and food to the firefighters as they fought the blaze.
The lives of many residents have been affected, either through the loss of their home or because the loss of electricity meant that people lost hundreds of pounds’ worth of food due to fridges and freezers being without power on the hottest day since UK records began.
The Walton Community Support Project was quick to begin collecting and distributing resources to those in need, and Tesco has worked in collaboration with the volunteers.
At the Old Farm Park Tesco Express store, a member of staff whose family was directly affected by the fire was able to leave the store on full pay so they could be with their relatives.
Shahin Ahmed, Store Manager at the Old Farm Park store, said: “It’s been devastating for everyone in the community, and we wanted to do what we could to help. All the Milton Keynes stores responded very quickly and we collected £1,600. We still have donation buckets out so people can contribute if they want to.
“We’re very grateful to all the generous customers who’ve given money. We know that with the cost-of-living crisis, many people have been giving when they can least afford it. They’ve been amazing.
“We wanted to give the donation to the community project that’s supporting local victims. Everyone in the community is really pulling together because of this terrible incident.”
The Tesco donation has taken the amount of money donated so far past the £10,000 mark, hugely surpassing the original £2,000 target. Anyone wanting to donate can go online at the Walton Community Support Project’s JustGiving page.
Charlie Deycon, Chair of the Walton Community Support Project Board of Trustees, said: “We’re really thankful to Tesco for all that they’ve done for us. The money is going to make a huge difference to our community.
“In the past two years the support we’ve had from Tesco has enabled us to grow to where we are now, helping so many people in the area.
“I’d say that in that time Tesco have given us about 4,000 bags that we use to deliver the food to families in need. We deliver between 50 and 60 bags a week, which wouldn’t be possible without Tesco’s help.”
