Thanks very much to everyone who has contributed to Lotti’s birthday fundraiser. As I write this we have raised £1032. That is a solid start after only two days. The challenge will be to maintain the momentum, so we’ll be putting out weekly updates to the wider contact list and on social media, with a different theme each week, until we get to Lotti’s birthday on July 11th.
Please continue to help us by sharing our social media posts and please also remind people to Gift Aid their donations. This costs the donor nothing and really helps to boost the amount we raise. I spoke with Lotti yesterday and she is thrilled with the amount we have raised so far. She sends a big thank you to everyone. Dee and I really miss being able to visit her but at least we can speak to her on the phone. Lotti has had such an amazing life and every time I speak to her I find out something new. Yesterday she was telling me about being a sculptor in her younger days. I knew she was a fabulous painter but I had no idea about the sculpture. There seems to be no end to this incredible woman’s talents.
We were contacted this week by a company that is making face shields and they want to donate large numbers of these to charities. The shields are fully compliant with EU standards but the company has decided to avoid the cost and time needed to get certification so that the shields can be manufactured and distributed as soon as possible. On that basis, we have ordered some for our market volunteers in readiness for resuming our collections at Borough Market and King’s Cross. We have also notified the charities in our network, explaining about the lack of certification. The response has been very good so far.
Donations have been picking up again this week and we have another branch of HSBC in London who contacted us about donating their surplus food. They are located in Southwark and, if they donate as much as their branch in Canary Wharf, the charities in that area will really benefit.
Finally, you can watch a really nice interview that Chef Shan gave to the Real Junk Food Project this week, explaining about his Feed the Nation initiative. He talks about how he’d like to continue supporting charities with meals even after he returns to his day job at the School of Wok. What a star! You can see the interview on Facebook here.