After our most successful ever Christmas mail order sales, we donated £3000 to The Salvation Army who work tirelessly helping the hungry, homeless and lonely. In 2020, the coffers of many UK charities were badly hit as society went ‘cashless’ and doorstep collections and other fund-raising events were cancelled – all a time when the country’s charitable services were never more needed. Even our shop counter Air Ambulance collecting box stayed empty so we also donated £1000 directly to this much-appreciated charity. Grasmere Gingerbread® believes that businesses, if they are able to do so, should help vulnerable sectors of society. In previous years, our Christmas mail order donation helped the Samaritans and Shelter and we also raise money from the sales of certain products for organisations such as Cumbria Wildlife Trust and The Lake District Foundation.
The success of our festive mail order was down to the hard graft behind the scenes of our fantastic team. In the run-up to Christmas Day everyone was run off their feet and hardly had time to catch their breath due to the large amount of national and international online orders. Despite all the issues with Covid and logjams at ports 99.9 per cent of the parcels that left us on 23rd December successfully arrived on customers’ doorsteps by Christmas Eve. I am proud of our team for making so many of our customers – old and new – happy at the end of a fairly miserable year.
Joanne Hunter, Co-Director, Grasmere Gingerbread®