COMMUNITY groups supporting their towns and villages through the coronavirus outbreak can apply for up to £500 through a supermarket scheme.

Tesco is making the grants available through its Covid-19 Community Fund.

In addition, over the coming 12 weeks, the supermarket giant will give an extra £15m in food to FareShare and the Trussell Trust for distribution to community groups and food banks.

Examples of groups that could benefit from the local grants are: women’s refuges, foodbanks, hospices, homeless charities, social isolation groups, schools, charities supporting the elderly and local authorities.

The application and payment process is simple to provide support quickly to these important causes, says Tesco.