Eight volunteers from Leeds Building Society’s financial reporting and control team helped with Harvest Festival food donations at Caring for Life in Horsforth, Leeds.

The charity runs two housing projects as well as a range of daytime activities helping vulnerable people to achieve a settled, constructive lifestyle.

The team were taking advantage of the Society’s volunteering scheme, which allows all colleagues a day’s paid leave each year to help in the community.

Esther Smith, senior pastoral administrator at Caring for Life, said: “It was a thrill to welcome volunteers from Leeds Building Society to help us with the enormous task of sorting, stacking and storing the harvest gifts which flood into us at this time of the year.

“This task requires considerable strategic planning to ensure that good systems are in place and adhered to, food is used in date order and is accessible. The team from Leeds Building Society threw themselves into the task with great enthusiasm!

“The wonderful generosity of supporting churches, schools and community groups mean that the ‘food pantry’ at Caring for Life is able to be filled, ready to distribute food each day to those in need and enabling the provision of free meals to all those attending the charity’s therapeutic daytime activity projects.

“This generosity helps to reduce our daily food costs, provides beautiful Christmas hampers to at least 150 people and also enables us to give emergency food parcels throughout the year to people who are in real crisis.”

Pictured, L-R, are Anna Wilkinson, Satinder Puee, Melissa Broadbelt, Lisa Campbell, Matthew Armstrong, Ian Lloyd-Jones, Liz Porteous and Rafiah Afzal.