Community Matters

This has been going on in Waitrose for the past few months. They're donating money to various charities and you get to vote for which charity gets it with a little green token. Each time there's three charities to choose from and they've tended to be two people related and one farming/animal one. What's fascinating is that you can see who's in the lead, who's eliciting more sympathy, and finally who wins. Interesting exercise. (For those who are really curious, whoever's in the lead tends to stay the same throughout. So who's winning at the start invariably is the winner at the end.)

It's changed 3 times since starting and it's suddenly got much more interesting. The last two lots everyone pretty much voted for the people charities, which covered Mental Health, Shelters and Family Support. The farms and animals barely got a look in. But this time it's different. The current choices are sick animals, drama for kids and raising money for safer playgrounds. And those poor animals are by far and away in the lead.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for helping out those limping cats and dogs, but still for me, children come first. So why the sudden shift for everyone else? Is it because they've voted against the animals for the past few months and they think it's about time they got behind them? If so, that's pretty unlucky for the children's charities. I wonder if it'll continue..