THREE good causes from Okehampton are celebrating this week after hearing they have been chosen to benefit from a new initiative.

Community projects in Okehampton are set to profit from £12,000 of funding from 'Community Matters', which is being launched in August by the Waitrose Okehampton branch.

Each month, Waitrose partners will choose three causes to benefit from a share of the supermarket's £1,000 regular donation.

The first three causes to benefit from the programme are Okehampton District Community Transport Group, Okement Rivers Improvement Group, and Okehampton College's learning support facility.

Shoppers at the checkout will each be handed a green token which they can place into one of three labelled boxes at the store exit — allowing them to learn about and vote for the cause they would like to support.

The more nominations a cause gets, the greater the share of the donation it will receive.

Charlie Edwards, the leader of learning support at Okehampton College, said she was 'over the moon' when she heard the news that the school had been chosen for this initiative.

She said it will be used to buy books for students who have difficulties reading.

'We have students who are struggling with reading and it can be demoralising for them, but to get some books for their age group that they can access would be wonderful,' she said.

'We have had students who say, "I never read miss", and then turn around and say, "are you getting any more of those books?", so to give them something to achieve is a really big treat.

'They are expensive to buy so to be able to buy more will be hugely rewarding.'

Pat Sawyer, chair of Okehampton District Transport Group, said: 'We are delighted that Waitrose have nominated us as one of the possible beneficiaries of the first round of their funding.

'We have been transporting people from both inside and outside of Okehampton by our Ring and Ride bus and our Community Car service. Any monies received will help us keep this valuable service on the road.'

The Okement Rivers Improvement Group, which focuses on the continued cleaning and beautifying of the town's river, will be putting the money into a project to encourage people to enjoy the area and look at the wildlife.

Devon County Councillor Christine Marsh, who is chairman of the group, said: 'We want people to value the area more. A group of people came together just before 2000 and highlighted the importance of the river as at the time there was a terrible amount of litter there.

'We did a big clean in 1999 and from then on we have formed the charity.'

On hearing that the group had been selected to benefit from the initiative, Cllr Marsh said: 'I am over the moon.

'It's good that the money is going back into the community. It's nice because Waitrose, since it came here, has always supported the community and supported the town in all aspects.'

Shoppers can also join Waitrose in supporting community projects by nominating causes that are important to them by filling in a 'Waitrose Community Matters' leaflet. All types of causes, such as senior citizen homes, local schools and youth projects, are poised to benefit from the scheme.

Damian Heard, branch manager at Waitrose, said: 'Community Matters is a fantastic initiative that will make a huge difference to a lot of people in the area.

'We're passionate about our community and as a team are very proud to be working on such a worthwhile scheme. We look forward to seeing lots of nominations from our customers in the coming months.'

'Community Matters' is a corporate and social responsibility initiative which will see all 190 Waitrose food shops across the UK donate money to local causes every month.