Colleagues nominate Irene for a new award

This time she has taken home the title of Individual Neighbourhood Food Collection colleague champion. It is a new competition category run by the supermarket giant to recognise and reward hard-working staff and she was nominated by her colleagues at the Strand Road store, beating off competition from nominees in the 2,000 stores across the UK.

Up to this year the supermarket only ran a store category in the competition, making Irene the inaugural recipient of the individual employee award, winning £500 in tokens to spend how she wishes in-store.

“I am amazed,” she said, adding: “I thought the prize was about £50, but I have won £500 to spend how I want in Tesco Direct.”

“We did the food collection in November and the store nominated who was the best in the store. Then it went to the UK, and the UK management team picked out the winner. To be honest I had totally forgotten about it. There was a lot going on at home and I had already been entered in the Community Champion competition, so I didn’t see myself being put forward for this,” she said.

“I don’t know how they came to pick me, because to me all the people collecting are the same. All I know is that the competition is done to recognise individuals that they thought went above and beyond the call of duty during the collection,” she said.

Thanking those who nominated her, she said: “I just want to thank the customers that donated. This is our fourth collection. Staff and customers donated and Tesco topped it up by a further 30 per cent, and our store total was over 3,700 meals.”