Edinburgh McDonald's restaurants donate £10k to local charities in Gorgie

McDonald’s restaurants in Gorgie have donated the proceeds from their 10p carrier bag fee to two local community organisations – LOVE Gorgie Farm and Garvald Edinburgh.

Each charity received a total of £5,000 from the restaurant, and will also get extra support from the McDonald’s teams.

Love Gorgie Farm will use the funds to expand their ongoing food bank operation. The free entry farm, which is based just outside of Edinburgh, opened a food bank during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, hundreds of parcels have been given to vulnerable people and families in Edinburgh, East Lothian and West Lothian every month.

The money will enable the charity to offer more choice, including fresh produce, to help continue supporting those in need across the Gorgie community.

Garvald Edinburgh, a charity which supports 240 people with learning disabilities across Gorgie and Dairy, will put the funds towards creating a greener environment around its sites in Gorgie. The money will go towards building shelters for working outside in all weathers and creating more eco and wildlife friendly spaces for its members to enjoy.

The donation was made possible by the newly launched ‘McDonald’s in the Community Foundation’, set up by 16 Scottish McDonald’s Franchisees, and the 20 McDonald’s-owned restaurants in Scotland.

The foundation provides a central hub to help distribute funds, raised by the 10p carrier bag charge, to different charities and organisations across Scotland.

Garvald Edinburgh received money which will help them support people with learning disabilities across Gorgie and Dairy.

McDonald’s franchisee Graham Angus, who owns and operates the restaurants on Gorgie Road and Asda Edinburgh, said: “Supporting our local community is of upmost importance to my team and me, which is why I was so pleased to see the McDonald’s in the Community Foundation officially launch this year. It means that each restaurant group can make meaningful contributions to charities in the communities that we operate in.

"Love Gorgie Farm and Garvald Edinburgh are two fantastic organisations, loved by many local people and have been around for 40 – 50 years. Both have proved essential to the people of Gorgie and we’re so pleased to be able to help keep their great work going with this donation.”

Dolina Gorman, Fundraising Manager at Love Gorgie Farm said: “We’re so grateful to McDonald’s and Graham Angus for this generous contribution – the funds will go a long way in helping the most vulnerable people in our community and we hope to grow this vital work even further. We look forward to continuing our partnership with McDonald’s and supporting the local community together

Mike Casey, CEO of Garvald Edinburgh, said: “We were so pleased to receive the generous contribution from Graham and his team. At Garvald, we want to support people to express their creativity, find meaning in work, and to feel part of a community. The vital funds will help us to deliver this support, by improving the experience for our members.”Up until now, the proceeds from the 10p carrier bag charge across Scotland McDonald’s restaurants have been donated to Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) UK. Donations totalled £3.9m by 2021, and went towards building the brand new RMHC House in Edinburgh.