Miles More Together Challenge
Together, Leicester-Shire and Rutland Sport, along with 9 Local Authority partner teams have raised £2400 for FareShare Midlands.
- The Miles More Together Challenge set out to raise funds and awareness for FareShare Midlands and our local foodbanks through being active.
- Together all teams have raised £2400 for FareShare Midlands.
- Together participants have logged 4637 miles over the week.
- Together challengers have been active for 1100 hours across the week.
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Together Leicester-Shire and Rutland Sport, (an Active Partnership championing sport and physical activity across Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland) and its 9 local authority partners have completed the Miles More Together Challenge raising £2400 in funds to support FareShare Midlands and collecting donations for our local foodbanks.
From 8th – 14th February, in a 7-day challenge, the Leicester-Shire & Rutland Sport (LRS) team have walked, ran, cycled, and wheeled the equivalent distance of twice around the combined perimeters of our 9 local authorities, a total of 1085 miles (from their doorstep and in line with government guidance on outdoor exercise).
Over the week we were also joined by staff from our 9 Local Authority partner teams, led by their Leisure, Sport and Wellbeing depts, who successfully completed their own challenge of walking, running, cycling, or wheeling the equivalent of their individual district parameters. Some teams even managed to log multiple loops.
At a time when being active is more important than ever for our health and wellbeing, staff have been encouraged to make time for physical activity, with teams together logging a total of 4630 miles over 1100 hours of activity.
Participants were encouraged to complete their miles however they liked, whether that was by swapping the car for foot on the way to the supermarket, walks with the family or with the dog, an opportunity to get some fresh air away from the desk at lunchtime, or an indoor spin on the bike in the garage. Some even used their miles to do good in their community, by litter picking or collecting food donations en-route. Whilst some enjoyed the competitive element, doing the most miles wasn’t the most important thing, it was about encouraging and motivating people to be active in their local area, from their doorstep, in a way that worked for them.
Why the challenge? To raise awareness and funds to tackle hunger.
2020 was a record year for visits to food banks across the country. Over the last year FareShare Midlands has distributed almost 25 million meals via local organisations to vulnerable people. This shows the vital role they play in supporting those in need within our communities.
In order to join in with the Miles More Together challenge, each team member has donated a suggested £5.00 entry fee through our Just Giving page in support of FareShare Midlands or donated to their local foodbank.
FareShare Midlands works in partnership with the UKs largest food redistribution charity, FareShare, to source and redistribute quality, in date surplus food which would otherwise have gone to waste. They turn an environmental problem into a social solution. After being sorted, the food is redistributed to 450 charities and community groups across the Midlands, including community centres, homeless shelters, refugees, children’s breakfast/school holiday clubs and more.
- £1 enables FareShare to distribute 4 meals to vulnerable people
- £100 could provide 400 meals for homeless people
- £200 could provide 800 lunches at a school holiday club
- £500 could provide 2,000 meals at a centre supporting elderly people and tackling isolation and loneliness.
The Miles More Together Challenge also wanted to raise awareness of the fantastic work our local foodbanks do and the unrelenting challenge they face every week in supporting families and vulnerable people. In some cases, team members decided to use their daily exercise to collect and drop off food donations to a local foodbank.
Luke Green (LRS Workforce Development Officer) and Geoff Maltby (LRS Sports Development Manager) used their daily exercise each day to run the streets of their home village, Castle Donington collecting foodbank donations from neighbours and residents for their local school foodbank at Orchard Primary School and at St Edwards Church.
Luke said,
"We have well and truly ended the challenge on a massive high. We would like to thank the whole community and every single person who has support Geoff and I during the week. The words of encouragement from those passing by, the messages here and there when picking up donations and those cheering from their windows and door ways have got us through the week, which at times has been tough with lugging the weight of donations round in icy/snowy and extremely cold conditions. The effort has been outweighed tenfold by the immense sense of pride and community we have witnesses during such challenging times for all."
Bethany Edge, from Active Leicester took the challenge, one step and spin further. Bethany pledged to complete two miles of the challenge by only doing cartwheels. After 920 spins later Bethany had completed her challenge.
The just giving page will reman open for the time being for further donations to be pledged.
For more information contact:
Lydia Lane
Leicester-Shire and Rutland Sport (LRS)
Name: Name, Sports Development Officer
Tel: 01509 564888
Email: info@lrsport.org
