Schoolgirl Martha Payne raises over £64,000 for charity

By TOM PETERKIN
Published on 17/06/2012 00:00

MARTHA Payne, the nine-year-old schoolgirl whose school dinners blog went viral, had last night raised more than £64,000 for charity.

The remarkable publicity generated by the Lochgilphead Primary pupil, who posted online critiques of the meals served up in the school canteen, saw more than £10,000 flood into her JustGiving account yesterday. The money is destined for Mary’s Meals, a charity that runs school food projects in developing countries.

Around 600 messages of support had been posted on her NeverSeconds blog after her local authority was forced to backtrack on its decision to ban her from taking pictures of school food to post on the net.

By last night there had been almost five million hits on her internet site, which for the last six weeks has been chronicling her school dinners, marking them out of ten for healthiness and making comments on their tastiness.

One supporter wrote her blog: “Wow! Just wow. What an inspiration you are! I hope you are very very proud of all you have achieved, you are obviously a very special young lady!”

Martha shot to worldwide fame when Argyll and Bute Council became concerned that the publicity surrounding her blog, which had been praised by Jamie Oliver, was distressing the staff who serve the school dinners.

The council took the step of banning her photographs on Friday morning. The move caused a huge outcry. Oliver and education secretary Michael Russell were among those who indicated that they disagreed with Argyll and Bute Council, which was forced into a humiliating U-turn.