A rural insurer has pledged to give communities across the south west 1,000 hours of volunteering this year.

Cornish Mutual is actively supporting its employees in their efforts to volunteer across a wide range of good causes in their own neighbourhoods.

Last year, the team totalled-up around 700 hours of volunteering by helping charities and community groups.

With its team members now working almost entirely from home, the insurer is encouraging employees to come forward with ideas of how they can make a difference in their own communities.

Many have already been shopping for neighbours, delivering food or medical prescriptions to vulnerable or elderly people, as well as joining the NHS Volunteer Responders.

Others have chosen to take part in litter picks and beach cleans or to volunteer at food banks.

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Katie Harland, HR leader at Cornish Mutual said: “We are committed to supporting the communities in which we work and live and have a strong tradition of throwing ourselves into fundraising, charity events and volunteering.

“We knew that our teams didn’t want to stop all our volunteer work because of the current restrictions.

"With everyone working remotely, we wanted to give people the opportunity to use a portion of their work time to help out in their local community.

“This is our most ambitious volunteering project yet.

"One thousand volunteer hours would amount to an average of 10 hours per team member.

"It’s a fantastic opportunity for us to make a difference across Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset.”