HASLEMERE Waitrose joined the nationwide celebrations with partners and charities marking a decade since the supermarket launched its Community Matters initiative.

The charitable-giving scheme sees Waitrose customers given a green token at the till, which they can place in one of three boxes.

Each is allocated to a different local cause, and a £1,000 donation from full range stores and £500 from Little Waitrose branches is shared among the three charities as a proportion of the number of tokens they have received from customers every month.

The Haslemere branch opened nine years ago and has donated £1,000 each month to be split between three charities.

The West Street store also supports partner volunteering to raise funds for charity.

Since 2009, it has donated £136,000 through the green token collections.

Branch community matters champion Trish Lane said: “We celebrated with representatives from four town charities – Christopher Ashton-Jones, from Haslemere Museum; Richard Parker, from Haslemere Musical Society (HMS); Robin Smith, from The Prostate Project; and Brenda Smith and Liz Cook from the Haslemere Quilters, who raise money for different charities.”

Waitrose staff attending included team manager Heidi Brand, helper Jack Holland, Macmillan fundraiser Sandy Cannon and Rosalie Morton.