Yorkshire Building Society has announced FareShare as its charity partner for the next two years, aiming to raise £1million to support the charity’s Building Skills for the Future programme to help 2,500 people enter the world of work.
Currently one in five people in the UK are experiencing food poverty and demand for food has skyrocketed due to the cost-of-living crisis. The food provided by FareShare acts as a gateway to these charities’ services, enabling individuals to access vital wraparound support to tackle the root causes of poverty.
The partnership between the mutual and FareShare will see the creation of employability programmes in seven of the charity’s 34 regional centres, including Leeds and Barnsley, London, Bristol, Milton Keynes, Edinburgh, and Cardiff. The Building Skills for the Future programmes will offer coaching, support, practical workshops and 12-26 weeks of work experience to help enable users to secure full-time employment.
In addition, the partnership will fund an outreach programme offering free of charge face-to-face sessions and workshops helping participants overcome financial hardship by supporting the building of important skills such as CV writing, job searching and improving financial wellbeing. It is hoped that the two programmes will help 2,500 people improve their employability and help them become more financially resilient.
Yorkshire Building Society will support FareShare through fundraising and cause collections across its branch network and through volunteering opportunities across the charity’s regional centres. Colleagues from the Society will also use transferrable skills to deliver employability sessions and financial resilience lessons as part of the outreach programme.
Susan Allen, chief exec at Yorkshire Building Society said: “Our partnership with FareShare will help thousands of people improve their employability and financial wellbeing.
“As a member-owned organisation, supporting our local communities is an important part of our purpose. We want to provide Real Help for Real Life and help build financial resilience. We have been so impressed with how FareShare not only provides much needed immediate help to vulnerable people but also reduces food waste, and works to improve the root causes of food poverty. We want to help them reach and support even more of those in need of help.
“Our fundraising target is £1million, and we know our colleagues will really get behind this partnership, whether that be through raising money, volunteering at FareShare’s regional hubs, running foodbank collections in-branch or delivering employability sessions.”
George Wright, CEO at FareShare said: “Our employability programmes support people, who may be vulnerable, into good, sustainable work, addressing one of the root causes of poverty. The services offered help individuals maximise their strengths, overcome barriers to employment and take advantage of opportunities that can transform lives.
“The partnership with Yorkshire Building Society will enable us to deliver these programmes to thousands of people via our sites across the country. In areas where the cost of living crisis has hit hard, these opportunities will be instrumental not only in improving outcomes for individuals, but also in helping FareShare get more good to eat surplus food to people.
“Yorkshire Building Society will make a vital contribution to our employability programme and help thousands of people seek long-term employment in the food industry, as part of our vital work to provide a hand up not a hand out.”
FareShare is the UK’s biggest charity fighting hunger and food waste. The charity redistributes quality surplus food from the food industry – that would otherwise go to waste – to over 8,500 local charities across the UK. In addition to providing food, these charities help tackle the root causes of poverty and provide vital services including lunch clubs for older people, community kitchens, breakfast and after school clubs, domestic violence refuges, and homeless shelters.
