Members of retail society OurCoop have completed the Chilterns Challenge, raising more than £3,000 to help communities save and run local businesses through community ownership.
Becci Britland, Jack Twigg, Craig Price, Maryann Denfhy and Jane Avery took on the Chilterns Challenge to raise funds for OurCoop’s partner organisation Plunkett UK, the charity which supports rural community businesses.
Covering 23 miles and enduring temperatures of over 30°C, the team completed the trek through the Chiltern Hills in 11.5 hours.
Hannah Barrett, partnerships manager at Plunkett UK, said: “We are so grateful to the team at OurCoop for supporting Plunkett by taking on this momentous challenge.
“£2,500 is the average cost of supporting a community group from an initial idea through to setting up and running their own community business. By raising this amount, the team has helped to secure a vital community asset for the future: a place that creates social connection, reduces isolation and loneliness, provides employment opportunities and boosts the local economy.”
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Walkers included OurCoop director Maryann Denfhy, who said: “OurCoop is proud to support our partner, Plunkett UK, and to raise vital funds by taking part in their Chilterns Challenge.
“There is no doubt that the heat made it harder, but all the more rewarding when we reached the end point. So much so, that the team are all looking forward to finding out where next year’s fundraising challenge will take us!”
The need for this support continues to grow the charity warns. Each year, communities face the loss of valued businesses and services that provide goods, amenities and spaces for social connection.
Plunkett says every pound raised will help it continue helping communities across the UK to protect and preserve vital local assets. For more than 100 years, the charity has supported communities looking to save and run businesses including pubs, shops, farms, and woodlands through community ownership.
Community-owned businesses are helping to reverse this trend, says Plunkett, “creating welcoming spaces, supporting local economies, tackling loneliness and providing opportunities for employment, training and volunteering”.
It gives the example of the Rising Sun in Woodcroft, Gloucestershire, a community-owned pub that received business support through funding from the Co-operative Retail Society Network.
When the village faced losing its only remaining facility, local people came together to secure its future. Since reopening under community ownership, the pub has set up the 4Cs group, standing for company, chat, cake and coffee, to combat social isolation. The monthly gathering now regularly attracts between 40 and 50 people and has even helped reconnect friends who had not seen one another for decades.
The fundraiser demonstrates the sixth co-operative principle, co-operation among co-operatives. OurCoop is a member of the Co-operative Retail Society Network (CRSN), a collaboration between Plunkett UK and a growing number of co-operative retail societies.
The partnership aims to grow the size and impact of the rural community-owned business sector. Members of the CRSN provide funding, share co-operative and retail expertise, work together to raise the profile of community businesses and explore innovative ways to support the sector.
