Congratulations Terry!

Congratulations to FareShare UK’s Driver of the Year – Highly Commended, our very own….Terry Thompson!

Annual Volunteer Awards

In September, FareShare UK held their annual Volunteer Awards to celebrate the extraordinary volunteers across the UK who have helped to get more food than ever to charities and community groups. Terry, our longstanding volunteer driver here at FareShare North East, received the ‘Driver of the Year – Highly Commended ‘ award. We sat down with him to find out more about his experience here at FareShare North East.

A Spotlight on Terry

Terry started volunteering for FareShare North East in 2019. He was looking for a volunteering role that was meaningful and worthwhile, helpful to the community, allow him to get out and about and meet new people. Since 2019, Terry has dedicated his time as a volunteer Driver, distributing surplus food, that would otherwise go to waste, out to hundreds of charities and community groups across the North East. Terry explained that he enjoys his journeys around the North East, and values the reactions of organisations who receive deliveries each week:

“It is a humbling experience to see what effect our efforts are having on the various communities they support and the heartfelt gratitude they demonstrate”.

Terry mentioned that he has had nothing but positive experiences whilst volunteering at FareShare North East, enjoying both the banter with volunteers and staff in the warehouse, and sharing life experiences with van assistants whilst out on deliveries.

In his spare time, Terry enjoys enjoys feeding trout with sweetcorn (sometimes finding it hard!), watching the Mighty Magpies draw nearly every match, watching other sports, as well as reading historical and local fiction. When asked about what he would say to someone who is thinking about volunteering, Terry said:

“I would say just do it. The ethos of the charity is the avoidance of waste, but they also promote an atmosphere that is welcoming, inclusive and very, very friendly. The work the charity, and the volunteers do, is worthwhile and I think that anyone who is volunteering would feel, like me, a great sense of satisfaction that they have done something valuable with their spare time.”

Thank You

FareShare North East would like to say a massive thank you and congratulations to Terry on winning FareShare’s ‘Driver of the Year – High Commended’ Award. We would also like to recognise and thank everyone who volunteers, and who make such an amazing contribution in the collective effort to get food out to those who need it most in the region.

“I am extremely grateful to be nominated for this award and I am both honoured and humbled to accept it in the knowledge that every volunteer deserves to be recognised in this way and I accept on their behalf.”

If you would like to join Terry and our team of amazing volunteers, find out more about how you could volunteer for FareShare North East.