At Mellow Yellow, our commitment to creating a better world is at the heart of everything we do. This year, we’re excited to once again partner with Toilet Twinning, a remarkable charity dedicated to transforming lives by revolutionising sanitation.

Toilet Twinning directly addresses the global sanitation crisis by providing clean and safe toilets to those in need, perfectly aligning with our values and dedication to sustainable development.

Join us as we delve into the impactful work of this inspiring organisation, its transformative effects on communities, and how you can join forces with us to make a meaningful difference.

This year, we’ve proudly twinned with 3 toilets:

The Vital Mission of Toilet Twinning
Toilet Twinning addresses the global sanitation crisis by pairing your toilet with one in a developing country. For just £60, you can twin your toilet, funding projects that construct basic but vital latrines. This initiative provides essential sanitation and promotes health, safety, and dignity.

Why Sanitation is Crucial
Sanitation is a fundamental human right. But the statistics are shocking. 1.5 billion people in the world, almost one in five – don’t have a decent toilet of their own. This absence of proper facilities leads to severe health risks, educational setbacks, and economic instability. Diseases like cholera and diarrhoea spread rapidly in unsanitary conditions, posing significant threats to vulnerable populations, especially children. Every two minutes, a child under five dies due to illnesses caused by dirty water.

Furthermore, Toilet Twinning’s mission is directly aligned with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, specifically Goal 6, which aims to ensure access to clean water and sanitation for all. By supporting Toilet Twinning’s initiatives, individuals and organisations contribute to the global effort to achieve this essential goal, thereby making a tangible and lasting impact on vulnerable communities worldwide.

The Transformative Impact of Toilet Twinning
Toilet Twinning’s work creates profound, positive change in the communities it serves. Here’s how:

1. Health Improvement: Access to clean toilets significantly reduces the spread of disease, improving overall community health.
2. Empowering Women and Girls: Safe sanitation facilities provide women and girls with the dignity and security they deserve, shielding them from any dangers. These facilities empower them to attend school and work confidently, without fear, opening doors to education and economic opportunities.
3. Educational Benefits: Schools with proper sanitation facilities see higher attendance rates, particularly among girls, who no longer miss school due to a lack of toilets.
4. Economic Stability: Healthy communities can focus on education and productivity rather than battling preventable illnesses, fostering economic growth and stability.

How You Can Get Involved
Join us in the mission to improve global sanitation is simple and impactful. Here’s how you can help:

1. Twin Your Toilet: For £60, you can twin your toilet, supporting the construction of a latrine for a family in need.
2. Raise Awareness: Share the importance of sanitation and the work of Toilet Twinning with your friends, family, and network.
3. Fundraise: Organise events or challenges to raise funds for Toilet Twinning, engaging your community in this vital cause.
4. Donate: Contribute to Toilet Twinning to support their ongoing, life-changing work.

Final thoughts
At Farrington Oils, our commitment to making a difference extends to supporting Toilet Twinning’s transformative mission. We believe everyone deserves the dignity and safety of a proper toilet, and we are proud to contribute to this global effort. Together, we can improve sanitation, protect health, and change lives for the better.

For more information on twining your toilet or getting involved, visit Toilet Twinning’s website.

Let’s work together to flush away poverty, one toilet at a time! Visit www.toilettwinning.org

This year has been hard for everyone in many different ways, so as a business we have tried to help out charities, giving back wherever we can. All of these charities are doing fantastic work and we are so proud to be able to support them and the incredible work they do, so read on to learn more about them…

Faraway Children’s Charity

The Faraway Children’s Charity are a local, Northamptonshire based charity who help disadvantaged young children in need to survive, thrive and smile. They distribute resources such as toiletries, clothes, shoes, toys, games, books, Christmas presents, Easter eggs and food, as well as planning festive celebrations such as Christmas parties to provide fun and smiles.

Duncan & Eli have been supporters of the Faraway Children’s Charity for many years and as a business we usually donate Christmas gifts to the charity to distribute to local children that may otherwise not receive a gift during the festive period. This year we were also able to fund a number of Christmas parties put on by the Faraway Children’s Charity, helping to give the children something really exciting to look forward to.

Find out more about the Faraway Children’s Charity here: http://www.farawaychildrenscharity.com/index.html

Food4Heroes

When panic buying during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic left many key workers unable to purchase even basic foods such as fresh fruit and vegetables, many pubs, restaurants and food outlets who had closed their doors to customers wanted to show support for the NHS by providing cooked meals that staff could enjoy on a rare break, after their shift or take home. This outpouring of support led to the creation of Food4Heroes. The not-for-profit organisation brought together furloughed staff from caterers, pubs and restaurants to cook nutritious meals for NHS staff.

In Northamptonshire, chef Danny Tompkins joined Food4Heroes and was quickly cooking 250 meals a day for local NHS staff from Althorp House where the Earl & Countess Spencer gave him permission to use their kitchen for all the cooking. We were very pleased to be able to donate Mellow Yellow Rapeseed Oil to Danny for all his cooking and over a period of 40 days, Danny cooked a huge 10,000 meals for Northampton General Hospital staff.

Danny is still cooking for Food4Heroes using oil donated by us, now providing food banks across Northamptonshire with 550 meals every week!

For more information on Food4Heroes, visit: https://food4heroes.org.uk/

FareShare – Fighting hunger, tackling food waste.

FareShare is a national charity that redistributes surplus food to almost 11,000 charities around the country that can turn it into meals. The food they redistribute goes to school breakfast clubs, older people’s lunch clubs, homeless shelters and community cafes. Every week, they provide enough food to create almost a million meals for vulnerable people.

Over the last 12 months, we have donated over 200 kgs of Farrington’s Mellow Yellow products. This was product that was too close to its best before date to send to shops, but still with plenty of life left for use. We hate the idea of food waste and so being able to send our surplus stock to FareShare has been fantastic as we know it is going to those in need and will be helping to fight hunger whilst also reducing food waste.

For more information on FareShare, visit their website here: https://fareshare.org.uk/

Mind – for better mental health

Mind is a mental health charity in England and Wales. Mind offers information, advice and support to anyone experiencing a mental health problem and lobbies government and local authorities on their behalf. Through helplines, community support, education and advice, Mind helps millions of people every year access the support they need to help them through any and all mental health problems.

In December we donated to Mind, helping to fund some of their work. Duncan was very keen to donate to a charity that supported those struggling with their mental health especially this year when the support given from organisations such as Mind have been absolutely critical.

For more information on Mind, visit: https://www.mind.org.uk/

Give Help Share

Give Help Share is a charity that was set up in 2020 by two teachers, Amanda & Jacqueline, to distribute food packages to families in need via schools and children’s centres in London and increasingly further afield. They are now supplying more than 2000 families every month. Amanda & Jacqueline wanted to put health and nature at the heart of their food packages so everything is healthy, nutritious and vegan. We have donated bottles of Mellow Yellow Rapeseed Oil as well as Mellow Yellow Chilli & Cumin Dressing to Give Help Share this year, which we really hope were enjoyed by the recipients.

For more information on Give Help Share, visit https://www.givehelpshare.com/home

Nominate A Friend

Back in May, we most of our office was working from home, which allowed our production team and core office staff to remain on the farm producing food for you, safely. Everyone was finding it difficult to be isolated from our friends and families but we found that food and cooking bought us together, from afar. So we set up a giveaway of 20 Mellow Yellow gift sets. We asked our followers on social media to nominate a friend, family member or neighbour that they missed sharing a meal with to receive one of these gift sets.

We were overwhelmed by the incredible nominations we received. Hundreds of heartfelt messages about key workers, missed family members and friends and those going out of their way to support others. We randomly selected 20 winners and sent a Mellow Yellow gift set to their nominee.

isolation nominations karl

We absolutely loved being able to bring a little happiness to people’s day and found it incredibly inspiring to read all the nominations. We wrote a blog post with more detail which you can read here: https://www.farrington-oils.co.uk/heartfelt-isolation-nominations/

We’ve all been affected by the pandemic in some way. At Farrington Oils, most of our office is now working from home, which has allowed our production team and core office staff to remain on the farm producing food for you, safely.

We know how difficult it has been to be isolated from our friends and families. We have found, however, that food and cooking has bought us together, from afar. We’ve loved trying new recipes and sharing hints and tips with our followers, but we wanted to do more. So we set up a giveaway of 20 Mellow Yellow gift sets. We asked our followers on social media to nominate a friend, family member or neighbour that they missed sharing a meal with to receive one of these gift sets.

Here are our winning isolation nominations…

Samantha nominated her friend Karl as she was missing their weekly meals together.
Chloe, who has been working so hard at her school looking after the children, was nominated by Tracey who is missing her and looking forward to when they can spend family time together again.
Karin nominated her son Sam as he was supposed to be getting married this year to his lovely fiancee Kav but the wedding has had to be postponed.
Cheryl chose to nominate her mother in law Maureen. Although Maureen is old enough to retire she has carried on working as a hospital cleaner, going in doing early morning shifts to make sure the frontline staff can work in a clean environment.
Ann nominated her friend Louise as she has been there for her throughout lockdown.
Jury was nominated by her daughter Gayatri for doing a fantastic job teaching throughout lockdown.
Donald was nominated by his sister. Donald and his wife Gillian both work for the NHS in Scotland and love to cook.
Ann nominated her neighbour Rosemary. They regularly share home grown produce and Ann is hopping Rosemary will bake her something with the oil in the gift set!
Ian nominated his daughter Rebecca who throughout the lock down has been serving the general public in her role at Waitrose and also keeping an eye on her elderly neighbours to make sure they have everything they need.
June wanted to nominate her daughter in law Sarah as a thank you for doing June and her husbands shopping and looking after them as they have been unable to leave the house due to being in the vulnerable category.
Stephen nominated Leeann as he hoped it would help her get into baking and discover the wonders of banana bread.
Fiona chose to nominate her friend Hannah who is kind, lovely and working hard for the NHS. Hannah works long hours as a nurse at a hospital in Dorset and Fiona is so proud of Hannah working through these difficult times. She is looking forward to their regular meet ups and meals with Lizi, Immie and Holly when this awful virus has cleared.
Claire was nominated by Catherine as she is a frontline key worker who went into work on her day off to create a beautiful rainbow mural to lift spirits.
Sam nominated Sara, his best friend, who turned 50 in March. They have had to put her birthday celebrations on hold until the lockdown is over.
Mandy was nominated by Alan as she has spent lockdown cooking for her large family and deserved a treat.
Christina nominated Elizabeth who is a key worker, filling our supermarket shelves day after day on long shifts. She is a mum of 3 and on top of that she does 3 lots of shopping for her elderly neighbours, baking cakes for them and sharing good advice to keep their spirits high.
Kerry nominated her auntie Cheryl as she misses her lots.
Peter wanted to give Andrea a pick me up as she on lockdown with a severe long term illness.
Sharon was nominated for being an amazing friend and continuing to make everyone smile every day despite how hard it may be.
Catherine was nominated by her Mum for her tireless commitment as a hospital doctor in central Birmingham, away from family and working in the thick of Covid-19 with a punishing work rota. She got engaged the day before lockdown, but sadly no opportunity for celebrations!

isolation nominations karl

We hope everyone is continuing to stay safe and we look forward to being able to share meals with our loved ones again soon!

Some days, events in the news or experiences of friends near to us, remind us how lucky we are. I am fortunate to have the support of a loving and healthy family around me, great friends, a stable and exciting career, with some great people who help make Farrington’s Mellow Yellow the success it is. Of course, there are days when life is a bit of a struggle and, as Eli will testify, I can get a bit grumpy and stressed on occasion. However, compared to some people in the world, we have a pretty good lot.

I originally looked at starting Farrington Oils as a farm diversification. The aim was to try and create a more sustainable income so Eli and I could continue to live and work at Bottom Farm where our (at the time) young children could grow up. With the support of both of our parents, not to mention years of hard work, Farrington’s Mellow Yellow has become a great success, far exceeding what I originally envisaged. I am very proud of what we have achieved, not only providing Eli and I with a stable income, but also a livelihood for the small, dedicated team that work with us.

Our success is very much thanks to the many loyal customers who buy our products, some of whom have supported us since I first started making Britain’s original farm to bottle cold pressed rapeseed oil back in 2005. If I think about it too much, it is rather humbling and, perhaps because of this, I am keen that we should share some of our success with the community around us. Over the years, we have been proud to support several good causes.

I have always been keen to support young people, to try and inspire them in a small way, so they will have the confidence to ‘have a go’ and possibly stretch themselves to reach for goals they may not have thought they could achieve. This comes to life in some of the LEAF talks I hold at the farm or in schools. I love it when I talk about some of my experiences, the challenges and successes in starting and running your own business. I remember on one school visit, a girl asking if I was famous because there was a picture of my face was on our bottle of oil, and the excitement in the classroom that with a bit of hard work and passion they too might start something successful one day.

We have supported some charities close to our hearts over the years. The Faraway Children’s Charity is named after one of Enid Blyton’s children’s books: ‘The Faraway Tree’ which tells the story of a group of children who discover a magical tree where they are safe and happy. This great local charity came to our attention as Eli and I were shocked by the amount of absolute poverty all around us, in our supposed modern, developed economy. Volunteers help young vulnerable people in Northamptonshire to “survive, thrive and smile”. The charity was set up to support children, to give them simple things such as toiletries and clothing for example, or an Easter egg at Easter; to show them love and hopefully put a smile on their faces.

Another charity we have supported over the years is the Batten Disease Family Association (BDFA). This cause is incredibly close to our hearts; Batten Disease is a very rare and cruel neurological disease with very little known about it. There are only around 150 sufferers in the UK, including our close family friend Laura. Laura is a fantastic eighteen year old, crippled by the disease, but cared for with the love and help of her family. The BDFA helps support such families and to try and raise awareness for research into Battens.

We have also supported Children in Need by attending CarFest at Laverstoke Park each year and supplying the oil for their Foodie Workshops, which are always good fun. More generally, we always try to support local charity fundraisers and events when a request comes through for some Mellow Yellow products as a raffle prize, for example. Recently Farrington’s Mellow Yellow supported the Hargrave Music Festival. For four days in September, our sleepy little village played host to a series of classical concerts, opera performances and cabarets performed by world class acts. Not something you would expect in Hargrave, but a great weekend to put our community on the map. I even read on one of the performer’s credits that she had performed in Sydney, New York, London and Hargrave!

support car fest

Finally, we are very proud to support our local Premiership rugby team, Northampton Saints. The club’s chef, Gavin Austin, has always been a great supporter of Mellow Yellow and when he moved to the Saints, he wanted to take his trusted oil with him. Our healthy range of oil, mayonnaise and salad dressings are now an integral part of these elite athletes’ diets.

Whatever you like to support, I greatly enjoy being in a position to be able to help others. In the past people have helped, inspired and supported me over the years. Besides, as well as giving you that warm fuzzy feeling when you support a cause you believe in, we have also had a bit of fun in doing so. Have a look at our Oilslide Challenge to see what I mean.

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