FUNDED PROJECTS
FEEDING hungry CHILDREN DURING LOCKDOWN A
Wooden Spoon Scotland helps Cash for Kids to cater for those in need
FIVE figure contribution from Wooden Spoon Scotland helped to feed families from Fife to Falkirk when the coronavirus pandemic pinched household budgets during lockdown. The children’s charity of rugby donated £10,000 to Radio Forth’s Cash for Kids appeal, which called on listeners to raise funds to provide children facing disadvantage – through poverty, disability or illness – with vital essentials. Matching donations were also presented to Radio Clyde in Glasgow and Radio Northsound in Aberdeen. Wooden Spoon’s sizeable sum to Radio Forth was used to source and distribute food packages, toiletries and activity packs to homes across Edinburgh, the Lothians, Fife and Falkirk and softened the financial blow of a series of cancelled fundraising events. Cash for Kids’ annual Tour de Forth – a scenic 100km cycle along the River Forth, which usually attracts a large number of sponsored riders and altruistic spectators – was among the Covid-19 casualties that left the charity facing an uphill climb to support those in need. Victoria Hendry, Radio Forth’s charity manager, said that Wooden Spoon’s efficiency and generosity in answering its plea for help had proved invaluable. “We knew that the families we work with – specifically those living in poverty – were going to be hit the hardest by the pandemic, so we set up an urgent appeal to our supporters and the listeners of the radio station,” she told Spoonews. “When Wooden Spoon donated, it was quite early in the pandemic and it was an absolute godsend for us. To hear that you are getting £10 is amazing but to get £10,000 made such a huge impact. We are a small, local charity so that £10,000 goes a really long way in helping
these kids. “If we hadn’t received the support then we simply would not have been able to help hundreds of children at the crucial point during lockdown. For the funding to have been at the height of the pandemic was really important to us. We want to say a massive thank you to those who support and are involved with Wooden Spoon.” As this issue of Spoonews went to
press, Cash for Kids had brought welcome relief to more than 7,400 children in the station’s surrounding communities and was continuing to build a fund from which grants will help families with children cover essentials such as food and heating. And further to rallying behind Radio Forth’s charitable drive, Wooden Spoon Scotland pledged £20,000 to The Larder to assist the social enterprise’s appetite for changing lives through food. One of the West Lothianbased charity’s specials is serving up cooking courses to tackle youth unemployment and it works directly with schools, community centres and businesses to do so.
“When Wooden Spoon donated, it was quite early in the pandemic and it was an absolute godsend for us. To hear that you are getting £10 is amazing but to get £10,000 made such a huge impact.” Autumn/Winter 2020
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