Its funny but as I write this I remember spending several hours mulling over the title for last years UK dine to save a life event..
I think theres a bit of me thats still uncomfortable asking people for money so I wanted the event to sound very up beat. Some charities have a habit of making the fundraising process quite depressing with there images of naked children and sombre music tracks. But YWAV arent like that, they are very positive and celebrational in the success of their projects.
One point of Interest is in the very different ways that John and I work. I tend to go for a less is more approach whereas I think John tends to write out 6 thousand word proposals in his sleep! And he is quite a demon at marketing... I think he could show some British charities a thing or two. Chow down for children was quite a simple premise, eat food, and invite your mates around. And give some money to your host who will give that money to YWAV.
I tried to stress that this meal could be a banquet or could be a fish finger sandwich. It didn't have to be anything grandiose. The important thing was breaking bread with your mates or family and helping children who didn't have such families to feed them in Uganda. But this is where I hit problems... This was about the time when the UK was going through a crisis with its culture of dining.
School meals were vilified for their high-fat contents and super Chefs were selling millions of books while the TV schedule showed programmes every night about how not only to cook good food but impress your friends and family. So there was an increase in the way people in the UK were viewing food and there was huge snobbery about which foods were cool (mostly expensive and organic) and which were not. So I found that the Chow Down for Children project while being simple and straightforward, also brought out peoples neurosis about the trendy-ness of their dinne