West Berks Cruse Bereavement Care

Sainsbury’s Newbury partnership with West Berks Cruse Bereavement Care off to a strong start

• Local charity benefits from Sainsbury’s Local Charity scheme

• The initiative is now in its sixth year

• Charity partnership was announced in July

Three months in to a year long partnership between West Berkshire Cruse Bereavement Care and Sainsbury’s Newbury has seen over £1,100 raised.

It’s been a successful start for the partnership for the charity which started after they entered Sainsbury’s Newbury’s Local Charity voting process earlier on in the year. For the last five years, the retailer gives customers nationwide the chance to vote for their favourite Local Charity, to be considered to receive a year’s worth of support from their nearby Sainsbury’s store.

Colleagues at the store have been busy arranging a number of fundraising events and were recently joined by Cruse volunteers for a sponsored walk from Hungerford to Newbury. The volunteers have become a regular fixture at the local supermarket. With Halloween and Christmas around the corner there are lots of plans for some seasonal fundraising events involving staff from the supermarket and representatives from the charity.

Store manager Dene Burton said “Our colleagues are always finding new ways to raise money and our fundraising for Cruse has got off to a great start”.

The partnership is helping the charity to raise their local profile and they hope to raise not only money but find more volunteers and encourage more people who have been effected by a bereavement to get in touch.

Cruse representative Ruth Tibbetts commented “We are grateful to have the Sainsbury’s platform to raise awareness”.