Wall’s Pastry has invested £5,000 in community café Little Lounge Play Café in Pontypridd, Wales as part of its 2017 Helping Hand campaign.

The campaign, launched in May 2017, was designed to find a UK community most in need of a helping hand from a regeneration project, and received hundreds of nominations nationwide.

“We received a huge amount of nominations from around the UK and it wasn’t an easy decision to make as all were worthy in their own right,” said Michael Holton, brand and marketing manager for Wall’s Pastry.

Little Lounge Play Café was deemed most worthy of a makeover and was nominated by local resident Sarah Herniman, who received a £500 cash prize from Wall’s Pastry for putting forward the project.

The funds have been used to transform an unused car park near the café into a sensory garden for children to play throughout the year. ‘Handy helpers’ were deployed by Wall’s to create the garden over five days, and it officially opened this week.

Café owner Katie Hadley said it had been overwhelming to find out it had won a national scheme and that such a big organisation had supported the group.

Holton added: “The café plays a key part in the Pontypridd community and we could see how much it benefits the area, making a real difference to the residents.”