Bristol Volunteers Celebrated at Awards Night

Selfless Bristol volunteers celebrated at food charity awards night

Last night, food redistribution charity FareShare held its annual volunteer awards, which celebrates the hard work and dedication of the food charity’s 1500 volunteers. This year’s winners include; FareShare South West’s Emily Yates, who won Fundraising Volunteer of the Year Award, Stephen Ness who won the award for Driver’s Assistant of the Year, Debbie Wyatt won Office Volunteer of the Year and lovebirds Denise Dale and Barry Coles who shared the Highly Commended award for Warehouse Assistant of the Year.

Winner of Fundraiser of the Year award, Emily Yates, took part in a Comic Relief Challenge of a 100 kilometre hike – three marathons, over three days. As a result, the challenge managed to raise over £800,000, split between 4 charities including FareShare. Her team have said “we are so proud of Emily for both her volunteering efforts, and her outstanding contribution to national fundraising”.

Stephen Ness won Driver of the Year for his commitment and enthusiasm to the charity over three and a half years, he’s been described by his team as “an excellent navigator with a photographic memory”.

Debbie Wyatt won this year’s award for Office Volunteer of the Year. Having volunteered for the past couple of years, Debbie has been a huge asset to the team at FareShare South West, taking on new tasks enthusiastically and is always friendly and welcoming.

Barry Coles and Denise Dale were nominated by their team for their tremendous selflessness, reliability and loyalty throughout their volunteering. Having met whilst volunteering at FareShare South West over five years ago, FareShare are delighted that Denise and Barry are engaged to be married this autumn. Congratulations to the happy couple.

Phoebe Ruxton, Director of Fundraising and Communications at FareShare South West said: “We’re incredibly grateful for the hard work of all of our volunteers, and it’s fantastic to have an evening to celebrate and recognise their achievements from the past year. A huge congratulations to Emily, Stephen, Debbie, Barry and Denise for their awards.”

FareShare’s annual awards ceremony took place virtually, hosted by Alyson Walsh, Commercial Director at FareShare.

“Words can’t express how much volunteers have helped us during the pandemic. We’re incredibly grateful for the support of all our volunteers and hope they find their experience rewarding by knowing their hard work helps local people, whilst saving food from waste. It would be impossible to carry out our vital work without the dedication of our volunteers. We are always looking for new people to join us. If you can spare a couple of hours, we would love to hear from you.”

FareShare’s volunteer awards saw the most amount of awards given due to the challenging circumstances of the past year. During 2020/21, FareShare South West redistributed more than 2,597 tonnes of food to people at risk of hunger. That’s the equivalent of over 6 million meals redistributed to 372 local charities.

Find out more about volunteering at FareShare.

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