MY 31 x 31 x 31 CHALLENGE. FUNDRAISING FOR VIVA!

Once again, I'm fundraising for Viva! - which campaigns for animals on many fronts. They do tremendous work, which I'm proud to support.

I’ve set myself the challenge of visiting 31 Care Homes over 31 days, with 31 chocolate cakes, to fundraise for Viva! the animal rights charity. My intention also is to demonstrate the effectiveness of whole-food plant-based nutrition as it applies to me.

I walk to my local pub - The Merry Monk, in Monkton Heathfield - then I measure the distance from there to the care home(s) and back. Everyone who donates is encouraged to guess the entire distance I will walk, visiting the 31 homes - the nearest guess will win a Viva Hamper. The cookery book alone is well worth it!

[26/7/24 - I've posted an update further down this post.]

Huge shout out to Pete and Kate, at Lesser Litter, Taunton's zero waste shop, who are sponsoring me for the cake ingredients - which means the cakes are all organic, since almost all Lesser Litter's products are organic.

One of the messages I want to carry to the care homes, is that I've been plant-based (vegan) for over 20 years. And I'm 86, on no meds, and living my best life. I'm also, I think, the happiest I've ever been! Why wouldn't I want that for everyone? 

I take along a couple of leaflets from Viva! on health and dementia nutrition, and also a couple of leaflets from Vegetarian for Life.

A couple of resources for switching to plant-based nutrition :

challenge22.com

https://www.pcrm.org/good-nutrition

There's also:

Catering for people living in care who are vegetarian and vegan

As of the 21st of the month, I’ve only delivered 15 cakes, so I’m well behind my target. The changeover of all the gas pipes and gas meter in the house, at the beginning of the month threw me off course quite a bit, when I couldn't go out, but I’m trying to catch up by delivering 2 cakes each working day. 

I’ve got 8 working days left in the month, and 16 cakes to deliver. It's going to be touch and go!😀

Update, 26/7/24:

By delivering 2, sometimes 3 cakes a day, I've pretty well caught up - only 6 more cakes to deliver. I've 3 working days left, so with 2 each day, I'll meet the challenge I set myself!

31/7/24

And that's just what I did. Here's the local paper's story on my challenge - with pics:

Somerset Gazette 

[Have to say there are a couple of inaccuracies in there - the distance covered was 123km, and I didn't need to go as far as Wiveliscombe or Wellington, don't know where that came from. But, all in all, not a bad report.]

I have to say, this was one of the best months I've ever had! Truly it's better to give than to receive - and, since the ingredients were sponsored by Lesser Litter, all I was giving was my time.😀