Six-year-old donates birthday money to fund charity jacket potato truck

Sunday 19 May 2024

A local food and nutrition charity is to provide free meals to vulnerable young islanders from a jacket potato truck this summer – and its unofficial youngest ambassador has become the intiative's first donor.

Six-year-old Ophelia Goldsborough donated all £100 of her birthday money to Caring Cooks, which prompted CEO Yvonne Corbin to open up donations for this year's campaign combatting holiday hunger.

The Holiday Hunger campaign, which Caring Cooks ran for the first time last year, provided free meal boxes for vulnerable children.

This year, Yvonne said, it will be back – but this time, on wheels.

Pictured: Yvonne Corbin, CEO of Caring Cooks, said that the Holiday Hunger campaign is "really, really exciting".

The charity bought a food truck and has identified six central locations, from where they are planning to provide families with warm meals.

"It's really, really exciting for us," Yvonne said.

With each meal costing about £2.50, the move to a food truck is also expected to reduce the cost of the operation from £25,000 to £8,000 - and provide social value for volunteers, too.

The truck itself was available second-hand by chance.

Yvonne joked: "I think I manifested it!"

Six-year-old Ophelia has become the Holiday Hunger campaign's first donor after she gave £100 of her birthday money to the charity.

She has a passion for food, having taken part in a few children's competitions.

Ophelia spends a lot of time cooking and baking with her parents, who are both in the industry and have taught her a lot about food and nutrition.

Her dad, Adrian Goldsborough – a Chef Lecturer at Highlands College – said his daughter even prefers baking cakes over eating them.

Caring Cooks, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, aims to tackle food poverty and support vulnerable families various education and community initiatives.

The soon-to-be-relaunched Holiday Hunger campaign is due to feed around 100 children a day from the dedicated jacket potato truck.

The truck, named Super Spuds, has already got a corporate partner in the Altum Group.

Yvonne hopes that Ophelia's donation will encourage other islanders to donate, even small amounts like £2.50 or £5 a month – which would sponsor one or two meals respectively.

In the long run, the charity hopes that this will allow them to expand their offering to other school holidays.

Yvonne said Ophelia was "amazing" and had unofficially become the charity's youngest ambassador.

Adrian added that the donation was "a fantastic gesture from a fantastic little girl".