I'd rather keep my five pennies thanks

I normally always chose Starbucks over any coffee shop. But lately (can’t believe im saying this) its becoming a bit repetitive and I fancied a change of scenery, so my friend suggested we go to Café Nero.

I’d only been there once before and I actually rather enjoyed it that time so I was like yeah sure why not. I ordered myself a chai latte with extra cinnamon (I love cinnamon yum) and was just waiting to pay. When my order was put through the till I had noticed a little sign saying something like “donate just 5p today towards Tanzania today”. The money raised would help them build water conservations; I wondered if the woman serving me would bother to ask me if I wanted to donate and surely enough she did.

However, just before she did there was a customer right next to me on my left hand side who was also being served by another staff member and got asked the same question before me. Her response was one that I wasn’t expecting and I personally found it quite rude and pathetic. The girl serving her said “Would you like to donate 5p today to a charity for Tanzania to help them with their water supply?” and the woman simply looked at her for a few second with a look of disgust on her face before finally replying, “Ermmm. No.” Fair enough I thought it’s your money do with it what you will.

She then went on to say, (with the same disgusted look on her face) “Why aren’t you supporting a more local charity? Why an African one? Why not one in England?” You could tell that the lady serving her was quite flabbergasted as she stuttered in her words when trying to say something along the lines of, “Erm oh well I don’t know, that’s just the charity that we are supporting at the moment.” The woman simply replied with an “Oh. Right.” She simply took her drink and walked off.

Whilst it can be seen that this was a really minor incident, it really annoyed me and got me thinking. I mean this woman was so reluctant to give up 5 pennies that was going towards a good cause. Its only 5p I hardly doubt its going to cause a dent in anybody’s bank! And since the money is going towards a charity, why would you say no? I certainly said yes and definitely felt less guilty about enjoying a drink out.

I really disapproved of her attitude and it got me thinking, if it had been a more “local” or “British” charity would she of happily giving the small donation? Obviously there are some exceptions as some charities may lie closer to your heart than others; for example I am always very giving to the breast cancer charity as my grandmother died from breast cancer. If your giving to a charity does it really make a different as to what the charity is for; we are so fortunate to lead the lives we do it shouldn’t be such a chore to give every now and again.