Tesco grant funds Culture Day to celebrate diversity and inclusion in Belfast

With 20 stalls offering traditional food, games, music and dancing, more than 1,000 people were able to experience a bit of the culture from countries like Senegal, Philippines, India, China, Denmark, Ethiopia, Canada, USA, the Republic of Ireland, France, Lebanon and Turkey. They enjoyed live traditional Irish music, a ukulele band and even a Chinese Dragon Dance performance.

The event is part of Lough View’s celebrations for their 30th anniversary as an integrated school.

“The school was set up by local parents and started with 14 children. Today we have 450 pupils, but our original values of inclusivity and respect are more present than ever,” commented teacher Fiona McGoldrick. “Our aim is to enable children from all backgrounds to feel included and valued in our local community. Culture Day has also helped the children and their families learn from each other and to respect and value other traditions and values.”

Fiona said they couldn’t have promoted the Culture Day in the same scale without the donation from Tesco. “It would have been impossible to set the food stalls as families would have to finance them themselves, so we are very grateful to Tesco and to our community for voting for our project.”

The Stronger Starts scheme, in partnership with the Groundwork charity, aims to support many Northern Ireland community projects and good causes in the coming years, with thousands of pounds to give away.

Claire De Silva, Head of Community at Tesco, said: “We’re delighted that we can help schools like Lough View Integrated Primary School. Stronger Starts invites our customers to use their blue tokens to vote for local schemes they feel will benefit children and young people, and it’s so good to see the impact that the funding makes.”

NI shoppers can support their local schools and charities by dropping the Tesco blue token they receive at checkout into the relevant voting box as they leave the store.

For further information on how to make a difference at Tesco stores across NI, please go to https://tescostrongerstarts.org.uk