about
This page tells you more about the background to BUY 1 GIVE 2 FREE.
WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME
In a recent speech in Rome, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) described their school feeding initiative as “one of the most cost-effective and constructive human rights programmes ever designed”.
On average, it costs the WFP about £10 a year to provide a child with a nutritious school lunch. This means that every 12p donated on World Food Day will help feed two hungry children. If you are in a class of 30 and you each put 12p in a collecting tin, you would be donating 60 lunches. If your school has, let’s say, nine classes, you could raise enough money to provide over 500 meals for children in a developing country!
How much is a packet of crisps?
B1G2F HISTORY
We started this fund-raising scheme last year, with primary and secondary schools in Gloucestershire. About 70 schools took part and raised £7,248.17 in total. Some schools simply put a collecting bucket in the dining-room on World Food Day. Some organised a whole range of other activities to raise more money. In many cases, pupils on the School Council took the lead, impressing everyone with their enthusiasm and great ideas.
The cost of the WFP’s school feeding programme was then 11p per meal. The money raised therefore paid for 65,409 school lunches for children in developing countries.
Last year we called the scheme Buy 1 Give 1 Free. Marcus, who came up with the title, liked the idea of the two 1’s in B1G1F being like the two 1’s in the 11p. And knowing whether it would work was, of course, a BIG IF! Well it does work and children in this country have shown how kind and generous they are in helping children in other countries.
Now that the cost of a nutritious WFP meal is about 6p, we thought we’d ask everyone to donate 12p each. This means you can buy lunch for two hungry children. That is why we now call it B1G2F – Buy 1 Give 2 Free, or "1 2 Free" for short! And, of course, it’s the second year we have run this scheme, so that fits the new title as well.
When Marcus was at school, 12 pence was known as a shilling. It looked like this:
(Marcus is, of course, very very old!)
PEOPLE
Many people are involved in the B1G2F scheme. We couldn’t do this without the support and hard work of Greg Barrow in the London office of the World Food Programme; of Jan Courtney and Jan Urban-Smith at Shire Hall in Gloucester; of Bob Willey at Trident from Edexcel; of schoolchildren and teachers all over the country.
Poet Marcus Moore goes to many schools to perform his work and run writing workshops. A former teacher, he is keen to encourage schools everywhere to take part in B1G2F on World Food Day. His eventual aim is for schools all over the world to become involved.
Click here for details of a project Marcus has been doing with the BBC and click here for details of something wild-and-wonderful he did in Cheltenham a few years ago – conducting an orchestra of mobile phones!
The posters and illustrations for B1G2F are designed by Amy Cartwright, who went to school in Gloucestershire but now lives in America. You can go to her website and see more of her fun pictures by clicking here.
The B1G2F website has been constructed by the cool guys at Bluelinemedia – Ben, James, Simon and Justin – who are also in Gloucestershire.
Marcus says he only likes working with “amazing people who do amazing things”. All the people involved in the B1G2F scheme fit that description. And that’s why we’d like YOU to get involved too!
Contact
Email marcus@b1g2f.co.uk
Phone 01285 640470
Write to B1G2F, 20 Coxwell Street, Cirencester GL7 2BH
