Monthly HappyNews: Uplifting News Stories

Every day throughout April, we aimed to lift spirits by sharing a daily mini-mini-podcast, #KindWords, on our social channels with a thought, reflection or intention to provide some positivity and well-needed balance. Discover your daily dose of #KindWords from HappyMaven here. 

We are thrilled to see that ‘Good News’ has been trending on Twitter, with more and more people sharing positivity and shining a light on the people and organisations who are changing the world with acts of kindness and using their power for good. 

This month, we have been overwhelmed with accounts of kindness, resourcefulness and goodwill in the fight against Coronavirus, but we’ve managed to narrow our selection of Happy News stories down, offering our fix of positivity in five of our favorite items from April. 

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Your Customers Say Thank You

Customer feedback platform, Critizr, have launched an online portal for people all across the country to say thank you to key workers working in local supermarkets during the Coronavirus crisis. Each message is tagged with the shop's location so that managers and staff are able to see and share their customers' grateful feedback. 

Why not take a second to say thank you to the staff working in the nation’s supermarkets, corner shops, banks, pharmacies and petrol stations and other essential services, who remain on the frontline to keep things going for us all, despite the risks.

#YourCustomersSayThankYou proves that words can go a long way to provide an invaluable boost to morale and motivation.

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M&S providing pyjamas for NHS staff to wear as scrubs

Our nation’s highstreet stalwart, M&S, have adapted their business to give to the NHS, supporting those working tirelessly on the frontline against Coronavirus. 

M&S is donating over 4,000 pyjama sets for doctors and nurses NHS Royal Derby Hospital, located near the M&S distribution centre, to wear as scrubs. In London, M&S is also donating thousands of NHS Nightingale branded t-shirts to form a uniform pack for the NHS Nightingale frontline team in London.

The retailer is also donating clothing care packs, each pack containing leisurewear, underwear and nightwear, for NHS Nightingale patients to help provide some comfort and normality when they get discharged.

Huggg offers an alternative to free school meals

As soon as school closures were announced in March due to the impact of Coronavirus, children across the country became unable to receive their essential free school meals.

One of our favourite HappyMaven partners, microgifting platform, Huggg has repurposed its business to offer a solution. Concerned by the urgent need, the team at Huggg set to work repurposing their platform (usually used for people and businesses to send real-life treats) to enable schools to purchase Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s vouchers to distribute to families until a central solution is made available. Schools in London, Bristol and Birmingham are now successfully using the platform to distribute vouchers with more being provided with access every day.

If you know a school that would benefit from this scheme, find out more here.

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Furloughed Foodies

Since the government’s job retention scheme was announced at the beginning of April, over 4 million employees have been furloughed indefinitely or let go by their employers.

A group of furloughed employees have united to create Furloughed Foodies, a volunteer-led scheme providing healthy, homecooked meals for the NHS and key workers in the community. After speaking to some NHS workers, they found that hospitals are receiving generous donations of cakes and unhealthy snacks, which despite being delicious, is not great brain food for those on the front line. What they need and lack is healthy, hearty meals.​​​​​​

Moreover, many canteens in hospitals don’t operate 24 hours a day, and staff working in the COVID-19 wards aren’t allowed in other areas of the hospital, meaning staff struggle for options when it comes to evening meals.

To support the Furloughed Foodies mission to feed the NHS and those struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic, find out how to get involved here.

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Britain is labeled a ‘green energy pioneer’, setting a new record for coal-free power

Great Britain spent more than 18 days in April without coal-fired generation, breaking the record for time spent without fossil fuel-generated power, thanks to sunny weather and low demand.

This has been driven by record solar generation and lower than usual electricity demand due to the COVID-19 lockdown.

Fintan Slye, director of National Grid ESO, said 2020 was shaping up to be a record-breaking year all round.

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