Portsmouth Street Pastors receive £300 donation from Waitrose Community Matters scheme

Portsmouth Street Pastors accepted a cheque for £304 from Waitrose in Southsea, after local people nominated the cause in the store’s Community Matters scheme.

Each month, the firm puts three boxes on display – each representing a good cause local to its Marmion Road branch – which shoppers place tokens into.

The more tokens each cause gets, the greater share of the supermarket’s monthly £1,000 donation it receives.

Jackie Hunt from Portsmouth Street Pastors, said: ‘Donations such as this are really helpful.

‘We are currently training new street pastors and with the average cost of training and equipping a street pastor at £300, this will cover that cost. Thank you to Waitrose for this much-needed support.’

Alice Lawrie, Community Matters champion at Waitrose Southsea, said: ‘Community Matters is our way of giving something back to the local area. We were really pleased to be able to support Portsmouth Street Pastors as one of our charities.’

The donation comes less than three months after Portsmouth Street Pastors celebrated 10 years of city service.