Mo got his smile back
A year ago our friend and workmate Mo Nabaie got his front wheel stuck in a tram track, landed face first on Plenty Road and lost three of his front teeth.
When we heard what happened and that he’d need two hard palate operations and three new teeth implants, everybody’s reflex was to clutch hands over mouths.
Over the winter lockdown, despite being in pain, Mo ran the Fair Food packing line through our busiest ever period and still played the joker keeping everyone’s spirits up.
With a cheap temporary denture Mo couldn’t eat or talk properly and he was so banged up he was glad to be wearing his COVID face mask.
Seeing Mo struggle the Fair Food crew launched a Help Mo Smile Again appeal to raise the $14,000 he need for the operations and implants.
Figuring that if only half the target was raised it would go some way toward getting Mo’s teeth fixed we were completely unprepared for what happened next.
The next morning, a little over twelve hours later, the $14,000 target was reached, in total 252 people would donate $15,010 to get Mo’s smile back.
At a time when we were locked away from each other the appeal gave us an opportunity to give and be part of a community bigger than ourselves.
For the next week Mo came to work completely overwhelmed. For many of us at the warehouse tears were always close to the surface.
Before Christmas as COVID receded Mo’s dentist, Saeed, successfully completed the hard palate operations.
And then finally last Thursday afternoon Mo sent us through the photo above from Saeed’s surgery, showing off his three new teeth.
Mo’s been instructed to take it easy for the first few days. This morning he said his new teeth were feeling exactly the same as they did before the accident.
After a year of not being able to bite anything crunchy Mo is looking forward to just eating normally again. He says his face even looks like it used to.
The last words are Mo’s….
….“So many thanks you’s to everyone – I have my teeth, but they are everyone’s teeth.”
Fleeting Fresh Pistachios
Usually around this time of year Shane O’Dea brings down a couple of hundred kilos of fresh pistachios off his family’s farm in Wahring.
Over Easter Shane brought in a few boxes and warned that this might be it for the season.
This year late rains have affected the nuts and the harvest is right down.
Shane’s fresh pistachio eating advice is to treat them like young broad beans, peeling off the two outer layers to get to the tasty kernel inside.
His storage tip is to keep them in an open bowl in the fridge and eat them within a couple of days.
This week you can find Shane’s fresh pistachios here and they’ll also feature in our Fruit Only and Large Mixed Fruit and Veg set boxes.
Read more about Shane Odea’s pistachios here.
Tuesday is Flower Day
Last week I wrote a story about Claire from Cherry Road Flower Farm’s regeneratively grown flowers – within a couple of hours of the newsletter going out every bunch had been sold.
Early on Tuesday Claire will be delivering more of her beautiful bunches to the Fair Food warehouse.
Numbers are limited and remember to leave a jar out with water in it for us to pop your bouquet in when we deliver.
At the moment we’re only delivering Claire’s flowers on Tuesdays so choose Tuesday as your delivery day and Claire’s flowers will magically appear “in stock”.
You can find Claire’s Flowers here.
Oh and if you know of any more sustainable spray-free flower farmers – hook us up.
We want your plastic bottles
Lastly, we’re putting the call out for your clear plastic bottles
We currently deliver hundreds of plastic bottles per week as ice packs – even though around 65 % of these come back we’d rather reuse and sterilise your existing water, drink or milk bottles than buy new ones.
Here’s what we’re looking for;
o Plastic bottles 1 litre or under
o Lid on
o Empty
o Clean
o Food Grade (water, drink or milk bottles)
Just leave your plastic bottles out in your empty eskies or with your flat-packed Fair Food box and we’ll pick them up when we drop off your next order.
Have a great long weekend
Chris
