Staff working on the Restart Scheme in West Central recently took part in a volunteering day at FareShare’s Nechells depot. All the staff on this Restart Scheme are employed by Serco who encourages its employees to volunteer in the areas they live and work to support local charities and community initiatives.

FareShare Midlands work in partnership with the UK's largest food redistribution charity, FareShare, to source and redistribute good quality, in-date, surplus food which would otherwise go to waste, thus turning an environmental problem into a social solution.

The Restart Scheme team got involved with various activities at Fareshare Midlands throughout the day including: 

• unloading, 
• sorting and storing incoming food, 
• assisting drivers to deliver and collect food across the Midlands and 
• picking and packing food orders for local charities and community groups. 

A representative from FareShare said:

“The staff volunteering has been absolutely amazing. Everyone has worked so hard and given us fantastic feedback, I can’t thank Serco staff enough”. 

Restart Scheme Wales team also supported FareShare in Cardiff. The team broke into smaller groups and spent the morning delivering the food to charities and community partners, then the afternoon in the warehouse picking items for next day deliveries. 

This is what the Restart Scheme staff had to say about the experience:

“Feeling very humble, great team of volunteers and so passionate about fighting against hunger in these hard times. I will definitely do it again.”

“It was great, I really enjoyed it, it’s nice to help the local community”

“It was a great experience - nice to take even a small part knowing that they are making a real difference whilst supporting the wide community was very rewarding - they are all doing an exceptional job and have appreciated the help from Serco staff”.