5 Positive News Stories

After a beautiful Bank Holiday weekend, it looks like we’re set for another week of scorching weather around the UK. I’m not sure whether it’s a great irony, or a positive that April and May 2020 have been the best months, from a weather perspective, in recent memory! We’ve got another four positive news stories for you this week, including wedding celebrations in a supermarket and World Bee Day.

ASDA Wedding Celebrations

Colleagues of Mandy Hamling at an ASDA store in Cardiff helped make up for her postponed wedding by hosting a surprise celebration at the shop.

On what was meant to be her wedding day, Mandy came to work to be greeted by staff who had decked out the store with balloons and banners, as well as providing her with a bridal veil to wear. An announcement was made over the store’s speaker system, before the song Chapel of Love was played.

She was then applauded and cheered as she was walked down the “aisle” by a colleague! Although she didn’t officially get married, the surprise celebration certainly went some way to making up for the disappointment of having to move the wedding date. 

Sustainable Animal Feed Trialled in London

The farming industry has continued to come under pressure from environmentalists and one of the big issues is the source of feed used to sustain the animals. Currently, soya is widely used to feed livestock and this results in rainforests being cleared to make space to grow the crops.

A team of scientists in London may have come up with a more sustainable solution though, making use of soldier flies. According to founder Kieran Whitaker, soldier flies are perfect as they don’t spread disease and they can eat rotten vegetables. In their labs in London, the larvae feed on coffee grind waste from local cafes and within a week they turn the waste into protein and that’s when the team harvest them.

Five per cent of the larvae are allowed to grow into flies to breed the next generation of larvae, whilst the rest are frozen and ground into a protein-rich powder, which, Whitaker says, is the perfect animal feed.

Power Grid Worker Returns to Family After 6 Weeks

There was an emotional return home for National Grid worker, Chris Jarvis who had spent the past 6 weeks living in an isolation pod to ensure that the countries power supply stayed on.

Chris was finally re-united with his wife and two young children last week and the emotional video was shared widely on social media. For six weeks, Chris, had lived in an isolation pod, along with other National Grid workers to minimise their risk of falling ill. Chris now has some time off to spend with his family before he returns to work.

Good job Chris and all of the other National Grid workers making a sacrifice to keep the countries power on!

World Bee Day

Whilst bees may be cute little fliers, they also play an important role in nature. It is estimated that one third of the food we eat relies on plants being pollinated by bees, but their numbers have been decreasing rapidly around the world over recent years.

World Bee Day may not be one that you have saved on your calendar, but it gave organisations around the world the chance to showcase their projects to help increase the bee population. In the UK, Eco Emeralds, in conjunction with Iceland and The Food Warehouse, launched their Backyard Nature campaign which is seeking to increase the number of wild flowers in the UK. The campaign has seen hundreds of thousands of seed-balls given away at the shops. 

Once these seed pods are planted and grown, they provide the perfect food source for the bees. 

"Normality" Beginning To Resume Around The World

Although we are still in the midst of a semi-lockdown in the UK, "normality" is beginning to return around the world.

Italy, one of the countries worst hit by the virus has begun to re-open most establishments, including hairdressers, bars and restaurants. In Spain, another country hit badly by the virus, bars and restaurants have begun to open outdoor areas and people can now meet up to 10 friends and family members in outdoor spaces.

Although a return to traditional normality is still a long way away, things are beginning to move in the right direction.