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31 July, 2010
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By Gavin Musgrove
Published: 07 October, 2009
COMMUNITY leaders in a Strathspey village hope to create a stir with plans to put Scotland's national dish on the global map – and ensure that hundreds of thousands of youngsters in the Third World benefit in the process. Carrbridge Community Council are behind ambitious plans to create an annual World Porridge Day which they hope will become a major fund-raiser for the charity Mary's Meals.
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The Argyllshire-based organisation provides meals on a daily basis in classrooms for over 375,000 children in countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe, in the process encouraging poverty-stricken families to send their youngsters to school. Mr Scott Bruce is chairman of Carrbridge Community Council, organisers of the World Porridge Making Championships, which have inspired the project. He said they wanted to establish a World Porridge Day to be held on the second Sunday of October and make it a staple ingredient of the international calendar. "Mary's Meals does tremendous work in helping some of the world's poorest children," said Mr Bruce. "We are delighted to be supporting the charity's efforts and help focus attention on the fact that for some children, the daily serving of porridge provided by Mary's Meals may be the only meal they will get. "We hope that whether it is at home or abroad, porridge fans across the globe will join in the spirit of World Porridge Day and sit down to a hearty bowl of porridge, while at the same time helping to raise money for a worthwhile cause." The 16th World Porridge Making Championship, being staged on Sunday in Carrbridge, will see expert porridge makers battling it out for the prestigious Golden Spurtle trophy and the title of World Porridge Making Champion. The annual competition is one of the highlights of the Scottish food calendar, attracting contenders from across the UK and further afield, including this year from Sweden, Canada and the United States. To mark this year's championships, porridge fans across the globe will be invited to host their own fund-raising World Porridge Breakfast, which will formally launch the bid to create the international day in honour of porridge. Organisers said that World Porridge Breakfast events and other porridge-related activities were already due to be held in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London, and as far afield as Bosnia, Uganda, Kenya and Malawi. The event has also caught the attention of Scotland's politicians, with Scottish Conservative Highlands and Islands MSP Jamie McGrigor this week tabling a motion of support for the fund-raiser in the Scottish Parliament. Closer to home, among the first to sign up as official porridge ambassadors are pupils at Carrbridge Primary School. On Friday morning, they are hosting their own fund-raising World Porridge Breakfast for parents and friends. School cook Margaret Urquhart has volunteered to come in early to help make the porridge breakfast, and will be providing a variety of different toppings for everyone to choose from. The youngsters have designed their own poster and invitations, and will be using eco-friendly palm tree leaf bowls, made in India, where a small palm leaf industry helps support a local community. Head teacher Gillian Kean said: "Apart from encouraging the children to eat porridge as part of a healthy diet, the research they have been doing into the work of Mary's Meals has helped them learn more about children across the world who are not as fortunate as themselves." Mary's Meals (www.marysmeals.org) started off from a tin hut in Argyllshire, and now feeds more than 375,000 of some of the poorest and neediest children in 15 countries. More information can be found on the new dedicated World Porridge Day website at www.worldporridgeday.com 
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