Do they worry if this no-questions-asked approach could lead to people taking advantage of the scheme?
Moylan responds with a resounding no. “That’s sometimes the pointy end of running a scheme like this, and that’s just something you have to accept as part of a community fund.”
She has had one customer tell her they used the scheme to buy a book for their friend’s birthday. In another instance, the scheme was used to supply 30 books for a local primary school.
“There’s something nice about the idea that people in Camberwell and Southwark are giving money – that then is going to buy books for kids who live around the corner,” said Gillian Lewis, the parent who saw Lala’s scheme and thought of the school books idea.
Moylan added: “We even get people who might use it one week when they feel like they don’t have just quite enough money to get the book that they want, and then like two months later they’ll come back and say they want to donate into it now.”
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