Sainsbury’s Surbiton is on the lookout for a new Local Charity partner after raising £6000 for Princess Alice Hospice (Esher)

•Sainsbury’s Local Charity partner scheme is back for its fifth year
•Surbiton customers can vote for their favourite local charity between 1st and 15th May
•For the first time, customers can vote online as well as in-store
•The winning charity will be announced in June and will receive a year’s worth of fundraising and awareness support from the store’s colleagues and customers

Local residents in Surbiton have the chance to find Sainsbury’s Surbiton a new local charity to support. It’s the fifth year of the retailer’s ‘Local Charity partner’ initiative, which gives local registered charities the chance to receive a year’s worth of fundraising and awareness support from store colleagues.

Customers and colleagues at Sainsbury’s Surbiton have played a big part in the success of the Local Charity partner initiative. In the past two years, their generous donations helped to raise £6,000 for Princess Alice Hospice. Highlights of the partnership, which closed in May, included fundraising in store, tombolas, merchandise donations, cake sale, raffles, shaking bucket and pot collection on tills.
Emma Waggott, Community Fundraising Manager at Princess Alice Hospice, said: “Working with Sainsbury’s Surbiton for the past two years has made such a difference to our cause. We’ve raised a fantastic amount which we’re using to help fund community care, in-patient care, day-patient care, therapeutic care, social work and bereavement care. We are looking forward to working with Sainsbury’s Surbiton on future opportunities”.

Since Sainsbury’s Surbiton, situated in Victoria Road, began supporting the initiative in 2009, it has raised over £6,000. Over the last four years, Sainsbury’s stores and their customers have helped thousands of charities and organisations across the UK through fundraising and volunteering and have raised more than £5 million to support local communities.

There’s even more ways to vote this year. Alongside nomination forms and a drop-in box, available in-store from Wednesday 1st May, for the first time, customers can nominate online, either via downloading a voting form via Sainsbury’s website - www.sainsburys.co.uk/localcharity or emailing their nomination to Local.charity@sainsburys.co.uk.

Sainsbury’s Surbiton Store Manager Paul Stansfield added: “Our work with previous Local Charity partners over the years has been really successful in letting our customers have their say. We hope our customers can take the time to vote in the coming weeks and give a local charity that’s close to their hearts the chance for us to support them”.

The winning charity will be announced in June.

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Notes to editors
The three voting options this year are:
1) INSTORE: Just fill out the nomination form at your local store and post it in the store’s nomination box
2) AT HOME: Visit www.sainsburys.co.uk/localcharity to download a PDF of the nomination form. Print it, fill it out at home and drop it into the nomination box at your local store
3) ONLINE: You can email your nomination to: Local.charity@sainsburys.co.uk. Remember to include the name and address of your local store, the charity’s contact details, and the reason you are nominating that charity

About Sainsbury’s Local Charity partner

• Sainsbury’s Local Charity initiative is now entering its fifth year, having begun in May 2009.
• Sainsbury’s stores are at the very heart of the communities they serve. It is not only important to provide great service and quality products, it’s also vital to make a positive difference to communities and to be a good neighbour.
• This begins with the positive economic impact Sainsbury’s stores have in generating local wealth, by providing employment, using local suppliers and contractors, and regenerating local surroundings.
• Over the last 4 years, Sainsbury’s stores and their customers have helped thousands of charities and organisations across the UK through fundraising and volunteering and have raised more than £5 million to support local communities.

• Princess Alice Hospice is a registered charity. It provides specialist end of life and palliative care free of charge to people with advanced illness and those approaching the end of their lives. The charity provides support to families and friends at every stage if illness and after death.

• The Hospice catchment area includes Surrey, south west London and Middlesex serving a population in excess of 1 million.

• Over £8 million is needed each year to provide these vital and much needed services, with limited NHS funding over 77% of funding must be raised through voluntary donations and fundraising.

• www.pah.org.uk

• www.facebook.com/pahospice

• www.twitter.com/pahospice

• www.youtube.com/pahospice