Community Matters

Inspiration

Two ways to vote, you choose

Branch

Each month every Waitrose branch donates £1,000 (£500 in Convenience shops) between three local good causes that you choose. At the checkout, you’ll receive a token. Just place it in a box of the good cause you’d most like to support. The more tokens a cause gets, the bigger the donation they receive.

Find your nearest branch

Online

Every three months, Waitrose.com shares a donation of £25,000 between three national causes - and we ask for your help to decide who gets what. At the end of your shop, you will be asked if you’d like to nominate one of three good causes who will receive a share according to the number of votes - just as we do in our branches. Click on the ‘vote’ button to make your selection.
Start your online shop here.

Find out more about Community Matters

National causes we are currently supporting

Anorexia and Bulimia Care

St John Ambulance

British Tinnitus Association

Anorexia and Bulimia Care

Anorexia and Bulimia care has 23 years experience as a UK national eating disorder organisation.

The UK has the highest rate of eating disorders in Europe, recent statistics suggest that 1.6 million people are clinically diagnosed with an eating disorder. Its not just teenagers, eating disorders affect men, women, young people and children from 8 to 80 and this has the potential to impact on around 269,000 households in England and Wales alone. These figures don’t reflect the numbers needing help as many struggle without diagnosis, treatment or support ; the people we really need to reach.

Anorexia and Bulimia Care works exclusively with eating disorders and has more than 23 years experience, helping anyone affected:

· We offer unconditional support and advice to sufferers and their families
· ABC’s busy telephone helplines and e-mail support take over 5,000 calls and enquiries each year. We provide dedicated lines for sufferers as well as parents and carers
· Our comprehsensive wesbite receives over 18,000 visitors per month
· Our one to one befriending services putting sufferers in touch with someone who knows what they are going through
· We provide training and resources to schools, colleges and universities

We want to strenghten our network of local support groups to help sufferers, their families and carers, put into place the strategies needed to achieve recovery and to return to their normal lives.

“I was able to find help, support and understanding at ABC. This made a significant difference on my journey of recovery, and today I am completely recovered.. ABC is a ‘light’ to sufferers and their families where hope is so vitally needed when dealing with such painful and difficult issues.”

The isolation and despair experienced with an eating disorder is overwhelming – there is no “cure” and recovery can often be a lifelong process. We need people to know we're always there when they need us.

St John Ambulance

St John Ambulance provides people with the skills to be the difference between life and death in an emergency situation.

As the nation’s leading first aid charity, St John Ambulance believes that no one should die because they needed first aid and didn’t get it.

Even basic first aid skills can often be the difference between life and death. But less than 10% of the population is trained in first aid and, every year, up to 140,000* people die in situations where first aid could have given them the chance to live.

Everything we do works towards a single goal – ensuring that wherever and whenever a first aid emergency occurs, someone is equipped with the skills to be the difference between a life lost and a life saved.

That’s why last year we distributed around 250,000 free first aid guides, and taught life saving skills to as many people as possible: on community courses, via demonstrations in public spaces, in schools and with young people – as well as providing many more with first aid information through our free first aid app (downloaded over 180,000 times).

Jacqui, who was saved by her son Brandon when she passed out at home, hitting her head on the floor, is living proof of the power of first aid.

Finding his mother lying in a pool of blood, Brandon immediately applied the skills he had learnt on a St John Ambulance course at school, putting her into the recovery position, raising her legs and applying pressure to the wound. ‘If it weren’t for Brandon, who knows if I’d even be here?,’ asks Jacqui today. ‘Thank goodness he knew first aid’.

Please help us save more lives in 2013 by voting for St John Ambulance. With your help, we can equip more and more members of the public with vital first aid skills.

*Source: Office of National Statistics death registration data, 2010 (for England and Wales)

British Tinnitus Association

Tinnitus, experienced by 10-20% of UK adults, 10% of whom reporting symptoms severely affecting their life.

10-20% of people in the UK hear a noise, or noises, with no external source, known cause, or current cure. This condition is known as tinnitus. For 0.5% of UK adults, or around 300,000 people, these noises are particularly distressing. Many feel very isolated and contacting the British Tinnitus Association (BTA) is often the first step to understanding and managing their tinnitus.

The BTA is the only national UK charity dedicated to supporting people affected by tinnitus. We directly help around 80,000 people per year – and the numbers asking for our help are increasing.

We provide access to a range of support services free of charge and available to anyone needing help. Choosing the BTA will enable us to continue to provide these vital services.

Our freephone helpline offers over 5,000 annual callers information, help and advice, including signposting to local services and groups, when they most need it. Numbers calling us have doubled since 2009/10.

I would like to thank the lady I spoke to in my darkest hour, and for sending the information through to me. I am now feeling much more positive about it all. Suzanne

Our informative website -www.tinnitus.org.uk - receives 119,000 annual visitors, accessing hundreds of pages of information. Additionally, we distribute over 50,000 tinnitus information leaflets, covering many popular tinnitus topics. Our online forum provides a platform for those affected by tinnitus with opportunities to support each other,enabling those young and old, to feel less alone.

I find the forum and all active members extremely helpful. I am [not out of the woods with tinnitus yet, and] not sure if I would be able to cope on my own without their advice. Paul

We receive no government funds and are entirely reliant upon the generosity of our supporters, so please help. Someone you know may need us one day.