WE DID IT!

By Ruth Brown · 3 January 2023

ARK Amble to four capitals achieved.

We are delighted to report that we have done it! Throughout December, the ARK team walked the 1,201 miles between Birmingham, London, Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff and back to Brum. It was all done virtually with the team and their families walking near their home locations through cold, wind and rain and often in the dark! This year we walked for the Trussell Trust and have already raised more than £1,500. If you would like to support this exceptionally worthwhile cause, we would love your support.

It has been a tough challenge to complete. We have battled with lack of light, bad weather and lots of the team suffering from colds and lurgy but that couldn’t stop us from achieving our goal.

ARK started ambling during the 2020 lockdown. Our Director Chris Seeley explained:

“It’s amazing to think that something good came out of lockdown but we wanted to undertake something as a team that gave back to communities. The ARK Amble – don’t be deceived, this is a hike – was born after a discussion in the team about what we could do. In the first year we walked the equivalent from Lands End to John O’Groats  in aid of Crisis and then in 2021, recognising our commitment to housing in Wales we walked around the Welsh Coast and back up Offa’s Dyke for Shelter Cymru. In all we have walked around 3,500 miles and raised almost £5,000. I am really proud of the team and congratulate them on this year’s splendid effort.”

We would like to thank all those who have generously contributed their miles and their pounds to the Trussell Trust. The Trussell Trust’s vision is for a UK without the need for food banks but sadly this seems further away than ever at the moment. In the UK, more than 14 million people are living in poverty – including 4.5 million children. They support more than 1,200 food bank centres in the UK to provide a minimum of three days’ nutritionally balanced emergency food to people who have been referred in crisis, as well as support to help people resolve the crises they face. Between April 2019 and March 2020, food banks in their network provided a record 1.9 million food supplies to people in crisis, an 18% increase on the previous year and during the Coronavirus pandemic food banks have seen need rise even further.