Help raise a smile for kids at Xmas
FOR so many reasons, and I know I’m far from alone in this, I cannot wait for this ghastly year to slither away and hiss into history.
Cloaked in a constant cloud of viral misery and death, there is precious little 2020 happiness for us to collectively reflect upon come New Year’s Eve.
But, before this wretched year meets its ignominious end, we – all of us – have the power to bring smiles to the faces of people we don’t even know, let alone realise we should care about. Smiles for families with precious little reason to raise one.
Witnes s ing the greedy, sharp-elbowed madness that spread through supermarkets across the country at the beginning of this viral hell, was like being whipped with a reality check.
People are greedy, we thought. And selfish. Me, me, me… and WHAT were they doing with all that loo roll?
But we later learned that most people are also kind, embracing the very human trait that reminds us that ‘ we’re all in this together’.
Those people, the compassionate souls, would be shocked to learn, then, that across the
country, cupboards, fridges and drawers in some towns and cities are bare.
We’re living in the 21st century and cupboards are bare! It still hasn’t sunk in. We’re not living in the fictional land of Goldilocks are we?
I mean, how can it then, in the current environment, even be a thing that one-third of food continues to be wasted.
Binned because it’s past its sell-by, which itself is a cunning, g, confusing ploy to make people ple buy, and usually waste, while hile so many children starve.
Although, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised sed at all of this, thanks to Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford shford and his heroic mission to o inform us that there are far too many children for whom the concept of three meals a day remains a made-up fairytale.
Three meals a day? Fiction. Not fact. For so many families that’s the everyday, the rule, not the exception. And still the big supermarkets are getting bigger, and, I’ll say it again – a third of food is wasted.
How can this be happening right in front of us while people, children for goodness’ sake, starve and suffer?
Thank goodness for Save the Children and the Mirror’s Save a Kid’s Christmas appeal.
Putting a meal on the table isn’t something that can be taken for granted for far too many families, and it’s thanks to the work of Save The Children and similar charities that we’ve become so aware of this.
We can fly nonstop to most of the world – even to the moon if we had the cash. And yet, there are still huge swathes of young familie families that can’t guara guarantee a daily meal on the table, never mind a slap-up Christmas dinner.
In what so sort of world could that th possibly be consi co d ered acceptab acceptable?
How is it in the 21st century that one-third of food is still being wasted?