A group of apprentices and employees from international engineering firm Nylacast, recently spent a day helping to harvest some winter crops and prepare the ground for new plantings as part of a community team challenge from Leicestershire Cares.
The 10 strong group undertook the challenge at Saffron Acres, a community project located in Leicester, which is also the home city to Nylacast’s global headquarters.
The keen gardeners and volunteers used the team challenge not only to build on their team working skills, but to give back to the local area and contribute to the local community.
Saffron Acres is part of a large community project working with the local community, schools and long term unemployed. The charity gained a large area of dis-used land on which to develop affordable eco-housing along with over 800 fruit trees to create a community orchard, which will be a beautiful legacy for the local community.
Nylacast training officer, Deana White who also participated in the challenge said, “All of the Apprentices and staff worked really hard and made a great effort on the challenge, it seems like only a few moments ago when we cleared the same land for plantation.”
In November 2015, a previous group of apprentices from the company participated in a similar challenge where they spent the team building day clearing the land in preparation for planting.
A spokesperson from Leicestershire Cares commented, “Team Challenges are a great opportunity to give something back to the local community and have a positive and sustainable impact on an organisation or area. They provide great leadership and project management experience for new or developing members of staff.”