Volunteer’s Week 2023 | Celebrating the people that give their time to make Project 35 happen
When Project 35, our award-winning social impact project in partnership with Ginsters, was conceived in June of last year we knew we would need the help of the Green Army, local businesses, and the people of our communities to help us as we tackled poverty in Plymouth, Devon, and Cornwall.
To celebrate Volunteer’s Week, an annual celebration of the contribution millions of people make across the UK through volunteering in their communities, we look at the incredible people that have selflessly given up their own time to support others for Project 35.
In September last year we launched Pledge 35, a volunteering programme encouraging the wider Argyle family to commit 35 hours to support regional activities across the season. Research and conversations with other charities in the food poverty sector identified a critical shortfall in volunteers, a situation worsened by the effects of the pandemic. With numerous activities planned across the season, we also knew we were going to need the support of a community and fanbase that we already knew were incredible and loyal.
To say we were blown away by the response would be an understatement. Within weeks more than a hundred ‘Pledgers’ had signed up and were ready and raring to go to support the cause. To date, Pledge 35 volunteers have given over 3,000 hours to projects, and supporting our partner charities, only demonstrating what we already knew about the people associated with our football club and local communities.
Our amazing Pledge 35 volunteers have been at the forefront of our delivery from the beginning, assisting at both fan food appeals, at our community larder, at dedicated Project 35 charity events, our Christmas hamper appeal, and filling the volunteering shortfall at food redistribution charity FareShare South West, a vital operation serving other charities with vital food support to people in Devon and Cornwall.
160 pledgers have signed up so far. 70 are currently active in the community. The expectation was for pledgers to complete 35 hours. The reality has been very different with over 20 pledgers already surpassing this, and one pledger, Chris Dixon, has given more than 300 hours…and is still going!
A proud Chris said: “I’ve been an Argyle supporter for 56 years, and this season, to have Project 35 on the shirt made me really proud. Being part of a team, supporting the community, and helping people in need is really important to me and I look forward to continuing my volunteering work for such a great cause.”
Project partners Ginsters have been integral to the huge success of the project. Their efforts in helping people in poverty across the season cannot be emphasised enough. Without their unwavering support none of this would have been possible. More than that, their wonderful team of staff have so far volunteered over 400 hours of time to projects including our dedicated Project 35 roadshows, food education workshops, Christmas hamper support, temporary accommodation support, food collection support - including at our dedicated Project 35 games, volunteering at FareShare South West, and at numerous community events.
Sam Mitchell, Managing Director at Ginsters said: “Supporting our local community in the Southwest is extremely important to us and we are proud to have been part of the creation of Project 35. Our team have been involved from the start, pledging more than 400 hours of volunteering time this year, on top of the food support we are able to provide. It means a lot to each of us to be able to contribute and see the impact personally.”
Trust Community Engagement Manager Dan Hart added: “As a Trust and a project team, we are so proud of our army of volunteers who are consistently going over and above to further our ambition to tackle poverty in the communities we proudly serve.”
With Project 35 entering an exciting second year, the need for volunteers has never been greater as Ginsters, Argyle, and Argyle Community Trust continue to tackle poverty in the region.