Stoke shoppers asked to choose Live at Home Scheme

Shoppers are being asked to support a charity that combats loneliness and helps keep older people independent by choosing it as their Co-op Local Community Fund beneficiary.

MHA’s Stoke North Live at Home Scheme is one of the Co-op’s charity partners this year and will receive donations when Co-op members purchase products from High Lane and Norton Co-op Food stores or John Johnson Co-op Funeralcare in Tunstall.  The money is donated by the Co-op at no cost to shoppers who just need to be a Co-op member and select the Live at Home Scheme at https://membership.coop.co.uk/causes/16405/.  Anyone who is not already a Co-op member can find out how to join at their nearest Co-op.

The Scheme will use the money to expand its activities for older people, which currently include exercise classes, lunch clubs, bowls, a history group and crafts.

Stoke North Live at Home Scheme Manager Liz Daley said, “We’re very grateful to the Co-op for giving us this opportunity.  We have extensive plans for the coming year to increase our activities and widen the areas we work in, so the money from the Local Community Fund will be well used.”

Rufus Olins, Director of Community and Campaigns at the Co-op, said, “Making a positive contribution and making great things happen locally has been at the heart of the Co-op’s purpose since 1844, and the Local Community Fund is a good modern example of this.  Along with our members, we’re proud to be making a difference to hundreds, if not thousands, of local lives.

“Since the scheme launched, Co-op members have helped to raise an amazing £20 million for 8,000 local causes nationally, but we want to do more, so the more people shop the more good causes can earn.  However, this is not just about giving money; it is about developing relationships with good causes in local communities, and we have been touched by hundreds of ways in which people have made their own communities better places to be.”