From Bala to Birmingham

Speciality Bites with

Paul Hargreaves

Chief executive of Cotswold Fayre

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I am in the middle of a gear change – desperately trying to catch up with lots of projects after coming back from Kenya earlier this week, before heading up to the NEC on Sunday for the Farm Shop and Deli Show (part of Food & Drink Expo)

By the way I am only setting up on Sunday, the show this year has changed to Monday-Wednesday, rather than Sunday-Tuesday.  I have already encountered a number of people who told me they were going to the show on Sunday - you can but only if you want to help us set up our stands! 

My regular trips to the orphanage in Kenya do add a good perspective to all I do, and I would thoroughly recommend anyone to become involved in something other than your day-to-day business activities.  This time I took two colleagues with me, and both have told me that it was a “life-changing experience” and are very pleased to have that opportunity.  They both paid for their own costs to go, but the week at the orphanage counts as “work” as far as their annual holiday allowance goes.  I am not sure that either of them expected one of their first views of Kenya to be the inside of a police station though.  Unfortunately I was arrested a couple of hours outside Nairobi with another 6 hours driving to follow.  The police were wanting me to attend court the following day, and it all got a little stressful, but in the end they weren’t used to arresting foreigners, and didn’t really know what to do with me, so they let me go.  We didn’t hang around, and left the town in a cloud of dust before they changed their mind!

This was the first time I have been to the orphanage with a team – there were 6 of us altogether, and as a result, as well as having various meetings about the farm, I spent more time with the children this time, and we also took around 6-7 suitcases of clothes for the children, which were a joy to give to them, but also very tough as some of the children didn’t receive anything. Not easy at all. We did assemblies, taught various lessons, took small groups on self-esteem and blew bubbles and balloons for the younger children.  I would like to do so much more, and remain convinced the way forward is to initiate more business that will enable the whole project to be sustainable.  We do need more money to achieve these aims – so please support this project by buying tickets or sponsorship for the Speciality Food Charity Ball – contact Ashton@cotswold-fayre.co.uk for more details.

Back to my normal job and I am preparing for my presentation at Farm Shop & Deli on Tuesday.  See you there or on our stand number C171 or indeed on one of the three Dragon’s Den sessions, where I will have metamorphose from aid worker to dragon.