Building society colleagues in Leeds to take on the Yorkshire Three Peaks in aid of FareShare

In total 283 walkers from across Yorkshire Building Society, including 110 from Leeds, will take on an iconic Yorkshire walking challenge. The walkers hope to raise over £22,000 for FareShare, the UK’s largest charity tackling the environmental problem of food waste for social good.

Colleagues will have the opportunity to challenge themselves with a 10-mile route over Pen Y Ghent and Plover Hill or take on the famous Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge which takes in Pen Y Ghent as well as Ingleborough and Whernside over 26 miles. The events will take place on Friday 14 June.

The money raised will help to fund Building Skills for the Future programmes in seven of FareShare’s regional centres, including London, Bristol, Merseyside, Milton Keynes, Yorkshire (Leeds and Barnsley), Edinburgh, and Cardiff. The employability programmes will offer coaching, support, practical workshops and work experience to help enable participants to secure full-time employment.

In addition, the partnership will fund an outreach programme offering free, 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.

Susan Allen, chief executive of Yorkshire Building Society said: “I’m delighted to see so many colleagues take up the Yorkshire Three Peaks challenge to help raise money for our charity partner FareShare.

“It’s wonderful to see so many colleagues dedicate their energy and time to help us with our target of raising £1million to fund Building Skills for the Future programmes that will help to improve employability and lift over 2,500 people out of financial hardship.”

Polly Bianchi, Director of Fundraising at FareShare said: “We are hugely grateful to all the Yorkshire Building Society colleagues who are putting their best foot forward to take on this challenge in support of FareShare.

“The partnership with Yorkshire Building Society makes a vital contribution to our employability programme and will help thousands of people seek long-term employment in the food industry, as part of our important work to provide a hand up not a hand out.”

For more information about Yorkshire Building Society’s partnership with FareShare visit www.ybs.co.uk/fareshare.