Sainsbury's local Charity of the Year!

St. John's Hospice has won the public vote as customers of the Lancaster store have voted us as their local charity of the Year!

St. John’s hospice wins Local Charity of the Year.

Sainsbury’s Lancaster has announced plans to join forces with St. John’s Hospice after the charity was nominated as ‘local charity of the year’ by public vote back in May 2011. Sainsbury’s launched their charity initiative campaign by encouraging customers to vote for their favourite local charity in the foyer of their local Sainsbury’s, with the aim of partnering with the winning charity for an entire year.

The news of the partnership was unveiled as over 70 staff and managers held a meeting at the Hospice on 12th July. During this meeting, Sainsbury’s also officially unveiled their plans to staff for a new refurbishment of the Lancaster store, which will include clothing and home ware sections as well as a new café and a pizza bar. Lancaster store Manager Steve Spencer said: This is an exciting time as we start the refurbishment of our 25 year old store and we celebrate the partnership of supporting St John’s Hospice and using our customer base of 16,000 per week to raise the profile of the work the Hospice carries out. We helped raise over £5000 for The Loyne School last year and we hope to exceed this for the Hospice this year. The 12 million pound refurbishment has now begun and is due to finish in February next year. The store will remain open to customers throughout this time with a weeks closure in February.

The next 12 months will be an exciting time for Sainsbury’s Lancaster, as it works alongside its chosen charity to organise fundraising events in order raise vital funds for the hospice. Sainsbury’s will be holding a number of bag packing days in store and there are also plans for a charity ‘bake off’ all in aid of St. John’s Hospice Lancaster. As well as this, the managers are appealing to its staff to bring in an item of clothing for the hospice which is always in need of good quality donated items. Baumer Kirkland have been contracted to do the store’s refit and as part of the charity initiative scheme are also donating their time to practical jobs desperately needed throughout the Hospice. Sainsbury’s hopes that by helping to support fundraising and volunteering activities throughout the coming year, the initiative will help make a positive difference to the local community.

As part of our partnership, we were able to create a display inside the Sainsbury's Lancaster store, which was created by 15 year old Poppy who spent a week in the Fundraising Team as part of her work experience.