Local journalism funds £2,000 donation to Edinburgh Food Project

Earlier this year The Herald ran a full week of features on The Future of Edinburgh, highlighting the people, places and big issues shaping the city.

In a bid to spread the word about the series, The Herald approached The Edinburgh Minute asking if they could advertise this special series. However, this newsletter is ad-free. I told them the truth, that I don't run adverts but would have linked to those pieces regardless of payment as they were all clearly rooted in strong original local journalism. However, I thought, maybe there was a cheeky way I could divert that advertising money to something more meaningful than my own pocket.

I asked The Herald if they would consider donating the marketing budget to the Edinburgh Food Project, which helps thousands of people in crisis every day. I spoke about how visiting their foodbanks over the past few years continues to motivate my fundraising efforts with the Minute. Without hesitation, they agreed. So big thanks to The Herald team for sticking to their word and transferring the cash directly to the food project.

The Herald Editor Catherine Salmond and I were given the opportunity to meet the dedicated Food Project Team in Broomhouse recently and hear about the direct impact donations like this will have all year round. Catherine said:

"Sadly, Edinburgh Food Project is a much-needed driving force across our capital city, where too many families are not able to finance life's most basic needs. It was a privilege to meet Chief Executive Laura van der Hoeven and her team recently, and hear about how far this donation will go, especially as winter hits and budgets are further stretched." - Read more in The Herald's piece on this partnership here.

More than 10,000 people currently use Edinburgh's seven foodbanks, which are registered with the Trussell Trust. The people at the EFP charity do a lot more hand out emergency food. They offer a money advice service covering budgeting, benefits and debt advice, as well as signposting to other support agencies (listed here) covering health, homelessness, employment advice, fuel poverty and more.

• 🥫 To find out more about donating food, click here for shopping list and a map of drop-off points around town.
• 🏃‍♀️ To run and raise funds for the foodbanks at the Edinburgh Marathon Festival (including a range of shorter distances), click here.
• 🎁 To give the gift of food, print off a Reverse Advent Calendar here.

Thanks again to The Herald for agreeing to this slightly unusual way of going about things. I'm so pleased it worked out for readers and the foodbanks. The Edinburgh Minute will always be free and ad-free. This can only continue thanks to paying subscribers, so thank you to everyone who cares enough about where we all live to make sure it has a reliable source of original journalism.

Read more in The Herald's piece on this partnership here.