Focus on our volunteers: Marc Flynn

Lots of our colleagues are taking time out from their day jobs to do their bit and make a difference to local people during the coronavirus pandemic.

This time we hear from electrician Marc Flynn, from our Property Care team who's been spending time supporting Oldham FoodBank and being part of the team delivering The Bread and Butter Thing (TBBT) affordable food services locally.

Marc says: “Our team got a request for volunteers to go and help out at Oldham Foodbank at the beginning of April, and my work has just evolved from there, really.

“Initially I spent a few days down at the foodbank branch at South Chadderton Methodist Church packing up bags of food for customers and driving round with a colleague from Oldham Council picking up food donations from shops around the borough and delivering them to the main Foodbank at the Three Crowns Centre.

“Seeing all the hard work that goes into making sure that people in need have enough food to eat and don’t starve was very humbling and when I saw an opportunity to get involved in The Bread and Butter Thing (TBBT), I knew I wanted to help.

“For the last four weeks I’ve been part of the TBBT team at Wallshaw Street Community Centre on Fridays and NEON Hub on Saturdays. I spend about two and half hours helping the team to get set up for the service and then distributing the bags of food to our customers – from a safe social distance obviously!

“There’s great camaraderie among all the volunteers and the Community Impact Team and the feedback from our customers is very positive. A lot of people say to the whole team, thank you so much, you do a brilliant job, so it obviously means a lot to them.

“To anyone thinking about volunteering, I’d say do it, it’s very rewarding. You might feel like you’re only doing a little bit, but you can see it means a lot to the people on the receiving end whose circumstances might be very difficult. You’re making a difference - I’m not a big fan of that phrase, but you are and that’s so positive in the difficult times we’ve found ourselves in.”