Returning to the RAF Club on Piccadilly again (see previous
Blog), I was pleased to accompany the Mistress Water Conservator to the above
lunch kindly organised by the Mistress Engineer, Dr Marilyn Wedgwood-Johnson.
We joined upwards of eighty other Consorts and their guests to enjoy fellowship
and good company but also to hear about a very worthwhile cause.
Before the reception began, we were given a brief tour of
the Club building and shown some of the remarkable paintings on display (nearly
all of aircraft somewhat unsurprisingly!). Also on display was the newly
commissioned portrait of Her Majesty the Queen by Benjamin Sullivan and very
splendid it looked too. We also saw the new stained glass window by Helen
Whittaker created to celebrate Women in the RAF and only installed last autumn
(see pictures). It is a most impressive Club and clearly very well used.
After a brief drink’s reception, we took our places at table
and were warmly welcomed by the Mistress Engineer. She wasted no time in
introducing our principle speaker Carmel McConnell, MBE, Woman of the Year
Campaigner 2018 and founder of the charity Magic Breakfast. Formed in 2003 and
in response to the horrifying statistic that over 500,000 children in the UK go
to school without any breakfast and as a consequence are in no state to learn,
Magic Breakfast now provides some 40,330 breakfasts each day across 480 partner
schools. In London alone, they feed 15,280 children every morning. The reasons
for these children’s lack of breakfast is many and varied but study after study
shows that you cannot learn on an empty stomach and that disruptive behaviour
is a likely consequence. These statistics are staggering and Ms McConnell
explained clearly and eloquently how she, and others in the charity, were
working with schools, Local Authorities, politicians and food wholesalers to
tackle this problem. But they are not just treating the symptoms however; Magic
Breakfast are also campaigning for an end to child poverty in this, the sixth
richest nation in the world.
Magic Breakfast is supported by a number of Livery Companies
and by personal involvement. She thanked all those who contribute to it and
urged others to do their bit. She is very compelling and told a remarkable
story which touched all those present.
There followed a lovely lunch and the conversation continued
in a Q&A session over coffee. A very worthwhile charity and it was
fascinating to hear of its work.
Thanks must go to the Mistress Engineer (and their Master!)
for organising the lunch but most of all to Ms McConnell for her candid
description of a child’s life in modern Britain. Very sobering.
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