Hey guys, I'm Connor, and in May I'll be running the Edinburgh Marathon and raising money for Edinburgh Food Project. They are a charity that runs seven food banks across the city offering emergency food parcels to people in crisis.These crucial parcels provide immediate relief from hunger and worry, giving people the opportunity to deal with other issues that may be affecting them. They also provide FCA Accredited money advice services to help people find a way out of poverty for good.

I am choosing to fundraise for Edinburgh Food Project primarily because I want to support a charity that changes lives locally. I love Edinburgh. This city has been a wonderful place for me to live and grow since moving here at the end of 2021. I am proud to call it my adopted home, and I feel grateful to all of the people I have met here that have made me feel so welcome. Doing a bit to help the members of this community who need it most makes sense to me as a way, all be it small, of showing this gratitude.

Like Edinburgh Food Project, I also believe in the centrality of food to living a full life. Growing up, family dinners were non-negotiable, and while I certainly didn't feel it at the time, I was so lucky this was the case. I largely took for granted these hearty meals, lovingly prepared for me, but it was through them that my love of food was developed. They are what I miss the most, now my family live so far apart. I realise now that they were also how I learned that food and love are synonymous: both are, vitally, nourishing.

Only in my adult life, however, have I truly come to appreciate the value of preparing nutritious food for myself. While I dread everything about the weekly shop, having a fridge-full of meals to prep is always worth it, and I'm all but lost without leftovers! I have begun to notice the strong link between what I eat and how I feel physically and emotionally, and my marathon training has only further driven this home. Eating the right food, and enough of it, is essential or else my body simply won't let me do the miles.

I know how important food is to me in leading the life I want to lead, and this is why I resonate with Edinburgh Food Project's mission of providing this support to others. The level of individuals and families experiencing food poverty in Edinburgh, and further afield, is acute. There are many reasons for this, though a shortage of food is not one of them; but it is the insidious nature of hunger that compounds them all. How does one begin to think about the future, when their basic need for nourishment is not being met today?

The food banks and advice services run by Edinburgh Food Project are a vital pillar of our community that needs to be upheld. Anything we can give to support their work will go a long way to helping those in crisis improve their situation.

Thank you!