In February, and almost entirely by accident, I designed and sold some t-shirts, sweatshirts, tote bags etc with varying sassy political slogans on them, aiming to fundraise a little much-needed cash for food banks up and down the country. Being fairly new to this, and a little overenthusiastic and naive, when some of my followers suggested splitting the proceeds with smaller charities, I agreed. Oh boy, the headache that that caused in the end, and the maths, and the report reconciliations and checking and rechecking my homework… I learned a lot in this process, chiefly about running headfirst into wild – if well meant – ideas without talking them through with an expert first, but also about the lengths that some people will go to to try to discredit and smear my work. No good deed goes unpunished, and all of that.

But the majority of human beings are good and decent people, and with that in mind, I’m very pleased to be able to inform those of you who supported this ad-hoc fundraiser, that as promised, all of the profits from each and every sale have been donated to food banks; both in a national network, and the small independent Foodbank that I myself used for six months, around ten years ago now. These funds will allow these food banks to continue their vital and often lifesaving work supporting people who are in need of an emergency food supply all over the UK, and for that, I am incredibly grateful for the generosity of all of you who supported this endeavour – and I’ve loved seeing all the photos of you sporting your merchandise out there in the wild world, often sparking conversations about what they mean, and what that means for the state of Britain today.

The first round of sales profits went to The Trussell Trust, a charity I have a long standing relationship with as a supporter and fundraiser. They received £11,082.39 in March 2022, I posted public proof of that donation on Twitter, here, and they publicly acknowledged it. Here it is again, in case anyone missed it at the time:

Some merchandise was left up for sale on my Teemill website (an accidental oversight by me, and an admin error that I take full responsibility for), so – even though I had stated in good faith that the shop was closed and did not go on to advertise it after that – a few bits and pieces continued to be bought after the campaign had publicly run its course. This generated a further £286.86 in profits between February and September, which was donated in full to the Southend Vineyard Storehouse (Registered Charity 1047393). The sheer difference in donations from both time periods is a clear illustration of the difference between doggedly marketing a fundraiser to almost 1m supporters across varying social media platforms for hours on end, and, well, not doing any of that at all and leaving it to pasture. The receipt for the Storehouse donation is here:

My Teemill shop is currently closed: it may reopen for further fundraising endeavours at some point, but for now, it’s having a well-deserved break from the limelight.

Thankyou again to everyone who supported and helped raise this incredible amount of money, for both organisations – you’re absolute superstars and every single penny helps them to deliver their essential work.

Jack Monroe.