Employees from across Newbury Building Society spent the day volunteering at StyleAcre’s Market Garden last week, helping their team to prepare for a fundraising open day at their Market Garden.
StyleAcre supports adults with learning disabilities and/or autism in Oxfordshire, providing supportive, creative, and dynamic environments which allow people to live the lives they choose. As well as running community hubs throughout the area, they run a gardening project at their Market Garden in Wantage, where they teach gardening skills that benefit mental and physical health.
Seven volunteers from the Society’s head office and Abingdon branch used one of their allocated days of paid volunteering leave to help StyleAcre prepare for their upcoming Market Garden Open Day in Wantage. The team got stuck into hanging up decorations, labelling plants ready for sale, tidying the garden, and even building a water feature!
Here’s what some of our green-fingered group had to say about the experience:
“Volunteering at Style Acre was a rewarding experience, where I spent the day weeding and performing manual labour tasks to prepare for their plant sale. Our collective efforts helped the Market Garden to raise over £800, demonstrating the incredible impact that community involvement can have.”
Luke McMahon, Treasury Analyst
“Volunteering with local charities is a great way of working within the Society’s communities to help establish green causes and assist in developing sustainable practices. I would encourage everyone to give back to our local areas and engage in volunteering opportunities as there is a great sense of achievement when you can see the result of your work, and the benefit that it gives to those within the charity and local community.”
Ben Forrester, Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Apprentice
“I immensely enjoyed the day volunteering at the StyleAcre Market Garden. This organisation provides an indispensable service to the community and serves multiple community groups. Newbury Building Society offers employees two days of paid volunteering a year – it’s an opportunity not to be missed! Not only does this help us support important community initiatives, but it also gives us new perspectives and helps us see beyond our day-to-day work responsibilities."
Chris Adlard, Consumer Duty Manager
Society employees are heading out on more volunteering sessions across their local communities throughout the summer months, including Trinity Winchester and Prior’s Court School.
To find out more about Newbury Building Society’s community and charity initiatives, click here.
