Popular Derbyshire farm shop Croots is raising money for Derby and Burton Hospitals Charity with a competition to guess the weight of one of its recently born lambs, nicknamed Gary Baaaarlow.
The Duffield farm shop would ordinarily have run a similar competition as part of its annual Lambing Sunday event, which was cancelled this year due to coronavirus.
Instead, the fundraising event has gone online – with the farm shop keen to support frontline NHS services in southern Derbyshire and south east Staffordshire.
First prize is a delicious three-course Champagne dinner prepared by the Croots Farm Shop chef and delivered to the door but please note this can only be delivered within a ten-mile radius of the farm shop.
Steve Croot, who runs the farm shop at Farnah House Farm, Wirksworth Road, with wife Kay said: “Last year at our popular Lambing Sunday event we had a competition to guess the weight of Gordon Lambsy and we would have run a similar competition at our event this year, but sadly it was cancelled due to coronavirus. We really wanted to continue our support of the NHS so we’ve moved the fundraising event online and are inviting our local customers to take a guess at the weight of little Gary Baaaarlow. We thought this would be a great way of supporting a fantastic local charity.”
Gary Baaaarlow – named after the singer/songwriter – was weighed at three days old on 21st April. To enter the competition, head to https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/steven-croot1, make a donation and guess what his weight was on that day. The competition closes on Monday 11th May.
“The three-course dinner prize includes a choice of starters, mains and desserts, but we can only deliver within ten-mile radius of the shop, so please note this before entering the competition,” added Steve.
Croots has previously responded to appeals to support NHS staff by delivering drinks and snacks to health professionals working at the University of Derby on virus testing.
The shop reacted swiftly to protect staff and its loyal customers through the Covid-19 lockdown by introducing new ways of shopping. It has given customers a range of options including advance order ‘click and collect’ and the opportunity to drive to the shop’s car park with either a completed order form or to fill in an order form on arrival. Shopping is then safely left on a table in the car park for collection or transferred direct into the boot of customers’ cars.
In addition, the farm shop has been offering twice weekly home deliveries to Duffield for the elderly, most vulnerable and those who are self-isolating, supported by a team of village volunteers who have dropped off their shopping. This scheme has now been extended to elderly and vulnerable people who live in the surrounding villages of Croots.
“Due to unprecedented demand, the number of customers accessing the shop, and the safety and wellbeing of our colleagues and customers, we had to adapt quickly to change the way we provided our customers with the food they wished to purchase,” explained Kay Croot.
“Over time, this has now been streamlined into a click and collect system, which allows customers to choose from a greater range of products on our website and pay securely online. We are busy working on improving this offer now so that it is more streamlined, integrated into the existing website with other payment options so that it can be rolled out further. However, we’re also available to customers who need to pop up to the car park and hand us their shopping list. We’d like to thank our loyal customers for bearing with us while we introduced this new way of operating.
“We’ve also had phenomenal support from our team at Croots, and I pay tribute to them for their dedication and hard work.”
For more information, visit http://www.croots.co.uk Find Croots on Twitter @crootsfarm_shop or on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Croots-Farm-Shop-127012538821/
