Your Regional Communities

At Your Co-op it’s all about supporting the local community – it's at the heart of everything we do.

We are owned by our members who guide us in our decision-making and help us to understand what local communities really need. And now, with the introduction of the Doing Good Together Fund, we’re doing even more to support our local communities and members have an even greater say over which organisations we help.

You, our remarkable colleagues, are key to the success of our Regional Community focus and we know how important it is to you to have all the information you need in one place. That’s why you’ll find everything you need to know about Regional Communities on this page.

Our Strategy for 2024/25

We want all our colleagues in every site to be fully engaged in the work of their Regional Community. To deliver this, every Regional Community now has:

A Local Plan meeting local needs and member expectations.
Dedicated Leadership Ambassador support.
A Steering Group (made up of colleagues, active members, community partners) meeting on a regular basis to discuss, plan and deliver the local strategy.
Member involvement: Members included , fundraising, grants, activities, volunteering and support.
Local Secondary or Primary School partnerships.
Extension of the fundraising partner from 1st July 2023 to 31st May 2025, click here for details of each partner.
Minimum of 1 Foodbank partnership.
Charity and community partners Legacy Partner Programme (these are our outgoing fundraising partners and other historical partnerships we have formed that we will continue to work with on a mutually co-operative basis).

As well as these new elements, we continue to:

Fundraise for your local fundraising partner (new from July 2023 through to May 2025).
Work with, and maximise the relationship you have with your local foodbank partners – by encouraging in-store food donations, promoting our foodbank December fundraising campaign and helping to raise awareness of the work of your partner foodbank in the community, find out more about how we work with foodbanks by clicking here.
Support agreed annual fundraising campaigns such as the Poppy Appeal, Children in Need, Red Nose Day.
Volunteering – up to 22.5 hours per year (pro-rata) for every colleague to support their local community by giving their time - check out all you need to know about volunteering and submitting your hours by clicking here.
Provide community grants and funding opportunities, although the way we deliver this has changed. The introduction of the Doing Good Together Fund in September 2024 empowered our store managers to allocate funding at a hyper-local level, providing small grants to good causes put forward by members. The fund shows our members how by spending with us their communities directly benefit. Members can apply through the online application platform here.

Find out if you work at one of our sites in a Regional Community area by clicking here.

Find out about YOUR regional community by taking a look at the information guides. These guides tell you everything you need to know, from who the community partners are that we work with in the area to what the correct PLU code is to bank your fundraising money:

Check out who our current fundraising partners are in each Regional Community by clicking here. You can also find out more about how the agreement to work with these fundraising partners works by clicking here.

Find out more about how the legacy partnerships work by clicking on the following links:

Think you may be interested in joining the Regional Community Steering Group? Then take a look a the profiles for each of the three key roles in the team by clicking on the links below. If you would like to chat further about opportunities to join your local team then contact the community team at yourcoop.community@midcounties.coop

Have a question? Then check out our FAQ/Hints and Tips Guide by clicking here. This will give you info on everything from how to find out about our grants programme to helping a local group to get a collection slot in one of our larger Food Markets.