COMMITTED community work in Chipping Norton has earned the Midcounties Co-operative a five-star rating in the Business in the Community's Corporate Responsibility Index.

The Society, which operates its food, post office, childcare, travel, healthcare, funeral and energy businesses across Chipping Norton, has been given the coveted rating for its commitment to the communities it trades in.

It follows the introduction of its ‘Regional Communities Strategy’, which sees colleagues working in partnership with their communities, to identify what its local challenges are. As part of the programme, the Society supports driving improvements by making sustainable and long-lasting differences through colleague and member involvement.

The Midcounties Co-operative has invested £1.2million back into the community in 2015, and raised £1.4million for charity partners over the last eight years. A commitment of over 26,000 colleague volunteering hours and an impressive reduction in both waste and energy usage were also praised by judges.

To mark the achievement, colleagues have been cementing their commitment to working responsibly by focusing on a big food bank drive to collect 5,000 items for families in need in the local area.

Recently the Chipping Norton store awarded a cheque for £1,000 to the Ace Children's Centre as part of its community contributions.

Stewart Howe, leadership team ambassador in Chipping Norton for The Midcounties Co-operative, said: “Supporting our local communities is at the heart of everything we do as a Society and so this achievement is one we are extremely proud of.

“We’ve worked hard to give the Chipping Norton community significant time and investment to understand how we can help to make a genuine impact on their lives that we can all be proud of, and we’ll continue to work with our customers, members and colleagues in the area to create a better, fairer world.”