Law Society staff raise £7708 for West Lothian Foodbank

Walking the Kiltwalk, running the Edinburgh marathon relay, and organising a staff ‘soup kitchen’, are just a few of the fundraising activities Law Society of Scotland staff have undertaken to raise a total of £7708 for West Lothian Foodbank in the last year. 

Numerous bake sales, sweepstakes, a pub quiz and a Christmas film emoji competition have all contributed to the fundraising total.  Staff have also collected food and household goods donations for the foodbank, amassing 167kg of food equating to 397 meals for the foodbank’s clients. 

Kathleen Neilly, manager of the West Lothian Foodbank said: “It’s been great working with the Law Society over the last year.  They have undertaken a fabulous amount of fundraising as well as collecting food and household items that we can distribute to our clients.

“Back in January a group of staff came to help us refurbish our new charity shop, and this, along with the fundraising money, has allowed us to take on some bigger risks, such as leasing a van, which has been a tremendous help. We are truly grateful for the Law Society’s support and can’t thank each and every member of staff enough for their efforts over the last twelve months.”

Lorna Jack, Chief Executive of the Law Society of Scotland, said: “We’ve had a great year raising money and collecting donations for the West Lothian Foodbank. So many activities have been undertaken and I’m really proud of all my colleagues for the amount of effort they put into our fundraising.  I usually avoid singling out any one activity, but the weekly ‘winter warmer’ soup kitchen which our colleague Alex ran for seven weeks, raising a fantastic £500, was a particularly inspired way of raising money whilst providing his colleagues with a homemade, healthy and hearty lunch!”

Law Society staff vote for a new charity partner each year to focus their fundraising efforts, recently supporting Ovarian Cancer Action in 2017-18 and The Stroke Association in 2016-17.

Law Society colleagues have voted to support Camphill Blair Drummond, a residential and day centre for adults with learning disabilities and other special needs for the next 12 months.