SHOPPERS can now support charity while buying groceries, thanks to a new link between the

Co-op and Oxfam.

Customers at nearly 1,300 Co-op food stores can give money to Oxfam as they pay for their shopping, using bar-coded Easy Giving Vouchers, worth 50p, £1 or £3.

Starting this week, the vouchers will be displayed at checkouts and customers can choose one and pay for it with the rest of the shopping.

Donations will be used to provide water to some of the poorest people in Africa, starting with the people of Hadish Adi, in Eritrea, who currently have a two-hour round trip to collect water.