Comment posted Martha Payne and NeverSeconds hit fund raising target: new kitchen for Mary’s Meals by Anne Baird.
This is a great result from a very worrying time. I hope Martha continues with her blog and the council learns to work with her and make something from it that shows what a great place Argyll & Bute is. It IS a great place with great people in it. We just need to get those officials out of the bunker and back into the daylight where nine year old girls aren’t a threat. Well done Roddy McCuish for making a start on that!
Of course the Daily Record was way out of order and I sympathise hugely with the dinner ladies, but I’m sure they understand that it’s the fault of some journalistic lout and not Martha herself. From what I’ve seen on Martha’s blog, her dad has already said the dinner ladies are great and the council’s response could have been to gather all the players together and shout it from the rooftops. Hopefully now they can present a united front that makes us all proud.
Anne Baird also commented
- £71,864.77 – over 1000% of her target! That’s a lot of lunches for kids who currently don’t get one at all and is a very happy ending to a bad start.
Recent comments by Anne Baird
- Russell to make parliamentary statement on rural schools today
Well Lynda, all I can do under the circumstances is wish you well and give up on you. The people I work with, whether in the SNP or not, know where my heart is and that’s good enough for me. - Russell to make parliamentary statement on rural schools today
Islay, it’s not the buzz in Southend. The school remains a vibrant part of the community and the kids I helped out with at St Columba’s footprint last week were having a whale of a time with a teacher they clearly love. The one parent I know of who moved her child did so in the wake of the consultation having swallowed the line peddled by so called experts that large peer groups were essential for delivery of the Curriculum for Excellence.Having taken part in the Commission I can vouch for the fact that small schools deliver CfE very well and are often leaders in this sector. Argyll & Bute contains some of these leaders and award winners, two of which were up for closure.
- Russell to make parliamentary statement on rural schools today
I don’t live in Dunoon and was following from Integrity’s comment about things that were said during the school closure fiasco. There was a definite divide in perception between Helensburgh and the rest of A&B which is why I said it needed to join in. The one Helensburgh SNP councillor at the time was one of the few to understand GAE and I have never heard him suggest the rest of A&B was less entitled to services.Nonetheless, I have heard other Helensburgh councillors repeat this myth that they pay for rural Argyll and it is time we dealt with that and built a more unified region where divides between urban and rural are no longer used as tools by council officers wishing to close things.
What is shameless is that even where we try to discuss schools and the need for collective action you can skew it to your peculiar obsession. How this will help rural schools or Oban High I know not. Nor will it help to point out the SNP among schools activists who came from other parties or had no politics at all. In that context we put our badges to one side.
As for my party, its councillors, its members, its structure, you clearly know nothing about it.
- Russell to make parliamentary statement on rural schools today
John, Integrity, the redundancy of the urban/rural argument was recognised by the Commission. It’s an excuse used in various scenarios without any recognition that the funds “saved” are not being redistributed. ARSN worked out that if all the projected savings were realised and reinvested it would mean 2p per pupil annually to all the other schools. Hardly a bonanza.The only way forward is for all the schools to work together to challenge the many myths that surround the financing of education in rural areas. Helensburgh need to join in. The nonsense idea that they contribute more is based on a very simplistic view of finance that bears no relation tp reality. If they understood how much of the block grant was attracted by our remote communities they might think better about closing the rest of us down.
- Russell to make parliamentary statement on rural schools today
The statement and the Government response to the Commission report make pleasant reading for any schools campaigner. Given the effort that Cosla, Ades, Solace et al put into scuppering the intention of the original act I put this down as a resounding win for SRSN and ARSN.The cost of small schools was a matter of considerable debate but there was eventually agreement that rural authorities are compensated for the challenges of rurality. The value of those schools is less easily calculated but there is no dispute that it exists.
The Commission also looked at the challenges of rural secondaries and it is now apparent that these are being noted and addressed in several ways. Judging by what appears to be happening in Oban it’s not before time!
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This is superb! I keep going back to her fundraising page throughout today and the total just keeps on climbing.
#neverseconds #winning
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Donated to the cause about ten minutes ago and in the two minutes after I donated I counted over £200 being donated and now since i donated its jumped by about £1000! Amazing!
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The ban has just been lifted by the Council Leader – just announced on BBC news!
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Lots of silver linings in this story. Martha herself is a great advert for Argyll and this is a fantastic result for Mary’s Meals. Not just the money (which is itself marvellous) but all of the publicity the charity has received, including a link on the BBC web site. Cllr McCuish has also justified his elevation to Council Leader and maybe, just maybe we can look forward to having a council we can take pride in rather than one labelled: “the stupidest council in Britain”.
What a day! Wonder what Martha will make of it all when she gets home?
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First class leadership by Roddy McCuish now what we need is to see some positive press with a photo of the council leader, Martha and the folks from Mary’s meals together with the dinner ladies on the front page of the Record.
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I think that No political capital should be made out of Martha’s humanitarianism. So only Martha and the folks from Mary’s meals should be in the photo.
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I just watched the story on BBC News24 and there are lots of positives!!
Children and parents are discussing school meals and nutrition in general.
The school in question is sending out positive messages.
The new Council has been seen to getting to grips with the subject and a meeting has been arranged between the parents, the pupil and Roddy MacCuish,the Council Leader. (Anyone else think that that was unlikely under Dick Walsh!!)
Mary’s Meals is undoubtedly the supreme winner and deservedly so!
My only concern is for the moral of the canteen staff
and my only condemnation is for the scum-bag rag known as the Daily Record for its headline of ‘Sack The Dinner Ladies’which was neither helpful or fair.
They should publish an apology!!!
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The poor dinner ladies are frontline workers. Someone much higher up the ‘food chain’(sorry)in the Council will sit in an office and be paid a promoted salary to ‘manage’ what the dinner ladies are able to provide. It is that person (possibly even persons) who is responsible for goes on prison trays in schools. It is their responsibility to ensure that dinner ladies have good quality ingredients, cooking equipment,facilities and training to produce good food.
If there is a problem in doing this then it is THEIR responsibility to convey that to elected members so that THEY can address issues.
Is the whole photograph debacle really down to the actions of a paid council official?
Time for some clarity (not just in A&B but across Scotland)about who does what within a local authority. Councillors have been elected to make policies. Officials are paid to implement them.
Lines have become blurred and no one is ever held accountable for their area of responsibility. Especially when it all hits the fan.
The current system failures are mocking democracy.
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Daily Record, bastion and loyal supporter of the Labour Party, attacked ordinary working people, the dinner ladies, not the Education supremo or the even the elected officials, but the working folks. Says it all. We should boycott the paper until they follow the sanctions as stipulated by Dot Macdonald
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The Daily Record have rewritten the story now and do not mention their shameful attack on the dinner ladies. An apology and large donation to Mary’s Meals (perhaps a promise to match donations through Martha’s appeal?) might help excuse their stupidity.
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This is a great result from a very worrying time. I hope Martha continues with her blog and the council learns to work with her and make something from it that shows what a great place Argyll & Bute is. It IS a great place with great people in it. We just need to get those officials out of the bunker and back into the daylight where nine year old girls aren’t a threat. Well done Roddy McCuish for making a start on that!
Of course the Daily Record was way out of order and I sympathise hugely with the dinner ladies, but I’m sure they understand that it’s the fault of some journalistic lout and not Martha herself. From what I’ve seen on Martha’s blog, her dad has already said the dinner ladies are great and the council’s response could have been to gather all the players together and shout it from the rooftops. Hopefully now they can present a united front that makes us all proud.
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The total donated to Mary’s meals through Martha’s blog now stands at an astonishing £36,274 with the money still pouring in.
Such is the power of the internet.
Haven’t noticed a donation from Mr Sneddon but perhaps he gave anonymously.
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Don’t forget to add Gift Aid.
At the moment it is
Total raised £39,257.24
Gift Aid £7,091.17
So the total is £46,348.41
Beginning to wonder whether it is going to end in six figures.
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So far, Martha has raised enough money for SIX kitchens, and the total continues to rise.
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Just had a wee peek this morning and she’s at £57,000+
At least something good has come out of this all. Congratulations Martha.
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£71,864.77 – over 1000% of her target! That’s a lot of lunches for kids who currently don’t get one at all and is a very happy ending to a bad start.
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Fabulous. And how many other children will now eat well?
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Mary’s Meals reckon it takes around £10 to provide each child one meal a day for a year so currently, if all the money was used directly on meals, this would mean a meal for a year for 7,300 children. A fantastic result.
Given that Mary’s Meals feeds over 650,000 children each year, that’s, however, a sobering statistic that shows how much money needs to be raised each and every year so that Mary’s Meals can continue its great work.
Mary’s Meals and Martha Payne: two great reasons to be proud to live in Argyll.
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Hopefully heads will roll first thing on Monday morning in Kilmory!!
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The appeal is getting very close to six figures – £97,676.76 (including Gift Aid). Fantastic achievement!
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It has been worth all the embarrassment and ramifications to get the result for Mary’s Meals that Martha has achieved. If it helps to get a coherent and functional communication department at Kilmory and further steps in the direction of an open and honest council then it is a double positive.
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Argyll is not large in population, and is unable to help the world. Possibly though, we could “adopt” through Mary’s meals this little part of Malawi and have some sort of relation between them and our schools here, not just from a fundraising point of view, but also across the broad spectrum of child care and education. It would teach us all if we could “adopt” somewhere where we can really make a difference.
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There is actually quite a lot of this sort of activity going on already. Malawi and Scotland have historical and cultural ties (mostly through the Church of Scotland)and Malawi is the main focus of the Scottish Government’s aid efforts. I cannot speak for all schools in Argyll but at Barcaldine they have had talks on Malawi and what it is like to be a child there. This makes a big impression on the children and Mary’s Meals is one of their favourite charities.
You are right in saying that we are very limited in what we can do for the poorer parts of the world. We can take huge pride in the fact that Mary’s Meals was founded and continues to operate out of Argyll.
And let’s back our pride with our money whenever we can.
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She’s done it… £100,000 – HUGE CONGRATULATIONS, AWESOME!!!
http://www.justgiving.com/neverseconds
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