You’ve heard of Calendar Girls? Well meet Calendar Meals. There’s a new charity calendar around raising money for the Parish of Badshot Lea and Hale and the charity Lupus UK, with each month showing a meal lovingly prepared by a mother for her son, and made into a picture – a face, an animal, a flower.

A sweet idea to encourage a child to eat you might think. No, because the child in question is 16 and rolls his eyes every time his mother dishes up a bit of food art, knowing full well that his she is winding him up and will post a picture of the latest meal on Facebook where it will garner admiring comments.

“You should make a calendar out of these”, was one comment. “Challenge accepted” came the reply and now, as Christmas approaches, the mother, Stella Wiseman, is selling the calendars to make some money for the parish and for Lupus UK. Her son, Robbie Eggleton, continues to roll his eyes.

Stella says: “All the profits are going to the parish and to Lupus UK, a charity which supports people living with Lupus, an incurable autoimmune disease which causes the immune system to produce too many antibodies. My best friend has it and anything that can help support her and teach more people about the disease has got to be good. I’d also like to raise money for the parish to support the work we do in the community.

“Another added benefit is that the calendar simultaneously makes people laugh and the longsuffering Robbie roll his eyes.”

There are two sizes of calendar – 16 x 21cm and 21 x 28cm and they sell for £13 and £15 respectively, including postage and packaging.

So if you fancy eccentric food art to brighten up 2020 and want to support two worthy causes, email admin@badshotleaandhale.org or call 07842 761919 and let us know what size you would like.

Here’s a taster: