SUPERMARKET staff and customers united to support Oxford’s homeless and vulnerable residents this week.

Magdalen Road’s Tesco Metro store held a three-day in-store collection for drop-in centre The Gatehouse to raise awareness of homelessness.

Customers generously offered to support the initiative, filling two bins full of donations.

Store manager Chris Rogers said: “I think being in the city centre, we obviously see quite a lot of it.

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“We have been trying to do something as a store that just gives something back. We have got people in need right on our doorstep.

“I think as a business we have a responsibility to put something back in.

“I think it’s something our customers want to see us doing and it’s the right thing to do, especially at this time of the year.”

Customers donated clothing, hats, gloves and blankets between December 11 and 13.

Cash donations from customers also allowed staff to buy 15 sleeping bags and camping mats.

The Gatehouse provides food and shelter six days a week to the city’s most vulnerable at St Giles Church Hall, in Woodstock Road.

Assistant project director Fiona Hurman said: “This is a really great initiative by Tesco and it’s fantastic that the local community has come together to support its most vulnerable members.”


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