COMMUNITY projects in Salisbury are set to benefit from £12,000 of funding this year thanks to a new initiative - "Community Matters" - which is being launched on August 6 in the Waitrose Salisbury branch.

Each month, Waitrose Partners will choose three causes to benefit from a share of the supermarket's £1,000 regular donation. The first three causes to benefit from the programme are:

• Help for Heroes- a charity launched in September 2007 to provide better facilities for and support wounded British servicemen. Donations will go towards the funding of a new swimming pool.

• John McNeill Centre- therapy for children with special needs and support for parents.
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• Salisbury Dogs Trust- re-homing centre for dogs.

Shoppers at the checkout will each be handed a green token which they can place into one of three labelled boxes at the store exit, allowing them to learn about and vote for the cause they would like to support. The more tokens a cause gets, the greater the share of the donation they will receive.

Shoppers can also join Waitrose Salisbury in supporting community projects by nominating causes that are important to them by simply filling in a "Waitrose Community Matters" leaflet at the Welcome Desk in store. All types of causes such as senior citizen homes, local schools and youth projects are poised to benefit from the scheme.

"Community Matters" is a corporate and social responsibility (CSR) initiative which will see all 190 Waitrose food shops across the UK donate money to local causes every month.

Chris Blows, Branch Manager of Waitrose Salisbury, comments: "Community Matters is a fantastic initiative that will make a huge difference to a lot of people in the area.

"We're passionate about our community and as a team are very proud to be working on such a worthwhile scheme. We look forward to seeing lots of nominations from our customers in the coming months."

12:04pm Thursday 7th August 2008

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