A TRIO of pubs in Oxfordshire will sacrifice profits from their pizza and pasta sales to assist with earthquake efforts in Italy.

Oakman Inns and Restaurants has pledged to put forward every penny from their Italian-inspired dishes after the country's devastating 6.2 magnitude quake last Wednesday, which killed more than 290 people.

The chain, which runs the Crown and Thistle in Abingdon, Old Post Office in Wallingford and Blue Boar in Witney, will donate the full price of every pizza and pasta dish sold between August 30 and September 1 to the Italian Red Cross.

Chief executive Peter Borg-Neal said: "We have strong connections with Italy. Much of our menu is inspired by Italy and their traditional cuisine, and we have a huge number of colleagues who are Italian.

"One of our restaurant teams only recently came back from training in Naples, and on Tuesday night, only a few hours before this terrible event, we were holding an internal competition to discover our best Pizzaiolo (pizza maker)."

The chain is urging customers to tuck into Italian dishes today [[thursday]] and is advertising the cause using the hashtag #EatForItaly on social media.

Mr Borg-Neal added: "If we sold our normal amount of dishes we would be sending a cheque for around £20,000. I am hoping we will have to write a much bigger cheque."