Supporting the Born Free Foundation

The decorations are down, New Year’s resolutions are already broken and Christmas is slowly becoming a distant memory. Here at D.W. Nye, our staff have been counting the money raised by our December competition and were delighted to present a £252 cheque to our chosen charity, the Born Free Foundation.

In the run-up to Christmas, hundreds of customers took part in our Gingerbread House competition, to guess the number of sweets hidden inside two culinary creations – a house and truck. Both were beautifully decorated with icing and stuffed with treats, creating an edible masterpiece. At £1 per entry, the customers at our Kingsfold depot were incredibly supportive and the guesses came flooding in. Our winner, Kevin Winlow from Denne, offered the closest estimate which was only four sweets short of the grand total of 658. Mr Winlow was presented with an armful of chocolate, in the form of a Luscious Hamper worth £75 courtesy of Cocoa Loco, a local chocolatier based in Horsham.

Our love of gingerbread dates back to 16th century Germany, when biscuit houses first started appearing. However, the Brothers Grimm immortalised the image with their tale of Hansel and Gretel, tempted by the wicked witch’s cottage. Elizabeth I is believed to have requested gingerbread shaped as visiting nobles, so our history of enjoying this treat is long and never-ending. However, spare a thought for the baker of the world’s largest recorded gingerbread house in Texas, USA, which was 60 foot long and 42 foot wide. We can only begin to imagine how many sweets that would house!

Closer to home, our master-baker was Kat Gianni – partner of our Managing Director Rex Nye – who lovingly took two days to construct and decorate the detached house and pick-up truck. Our thanks go to Kat for her time and effort in creating something worthy of The Great British Bake Off.

As a local family-run business, we look to support local charities. Based in Horsham, Born Free operates on an international stage, working to stop animals suffering and to protect species in the wild around the globe. We will be undertaking more charitable fundraising activities throughout 2018, so keep an eye out at our Kingsfold depot.