HARLOW resident Carly Burd has broken her silence and announced that she plans to donate £50,000 to the Harlow Foodbank.

On Easter Monday, YH received a WhatsApp message in which Ms Burd stated the following:

“This Easter, A Meal On Me With Love is donating £50,000 to Harlow Food Bank.

“Although I’m no longer able to grow and harvest food from the allotments due to council restrictions, I’ve chosen another way to feed our community—by making sure those who need it most still receive support.

This donation isn’t just from me—it’s from all of us. From everyone who believed in the work we started, who donated, who volunteered, who stood by me when the soil was salted, and who refused to let hope dry up. Together, we’ve already given over £120,000 to help local charities here in Harlow. And I’m not done yet.

I may not have the land anymore, but I still have love. I still have purpose. And I will always find a way to help people.

This is for the single parents. The elderly. The families in-between paydays. The people who feel forgotten. You are not alone.

“This is A Meal On Me With Love—and it always will be”.

We contacted the Chief Executive of the Michael Roberts Charitable Trust, (which runs the Harlow Foodbank) Andy Thornton.

Update

On Thursday, Mr Thornton confirmed that they had received the monies.

On the same day, Ms Burd sent a WhatsApp exchange to YH. She also published said exchange on her Tik Tok account.

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You may recall that back in 2023, the Canons Gate allotment, off the Fold Croft area of Harlow, was the centre of national and international media attention after Carly Burd alleged that vandals had poured salt on the community allotment she was nurturing there.

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Her Tik Tok video of herself visibly distraught soon gained millions of followers.

The world’s media flocked to the allotment off Fold Croft. Good Morning Britain reported live from there.

On the back of all this publicity, over £254,000 was raised via Carly’s GoFundMe page as people were keen to support Carly and her cause of alleviating poverty in Harlow by creating a community allotment.

Close to 15,000 people donated money to help Carly and her cause.

But the whole project ended up in what we can only describe as “development hell”. In short, Carly Burd and Harlow Council parted ways.

The last we heard of Carly was in April 2024, when she donated £71,658 to a variety of causes across Harlow via her community interest company, A Meal On Me With Love.

At the end of 2024, she published her accounts for A Meal On Me With Love.

It showed that of the £254,000, there was now:

£150,785 in the bank.

Then came the deductions.
£33,404 was allocated for Corporation Tax.
£10,580 is allocated for other debts.

That left the CIC with £106,801 left.

We were aware that the accounts reflected the financial position ending April 2024.

So, via e-mail we asked Ms Burd the following questions.

1. How much of the £106,801 was left?

2. If you have spent any of the £106k, then what have you spent it on?
3. If you haven’t, what are your plans regarding the £106,801.
4. If you have not, what has prevented you from doing the same as before. That is to say, give the money to worthy causes across Harlow?

Ms Burd did not reply.

However, on the back of her statement on Easter Monday, we sent another series of questions to Ms Burd.

We asked:

1. The £50,000 (that you have just donated) has been “with you” for a considerable amount of time. What has prevented you from donating it?
2. How much of the £254K is left? We estimate that it is in the region of £56k. If so, what are your plans and, again, if so, what is preventing you (now) from donating it to a cause?

On this occasion, Ms Burd has given us a detailed reply.

Carly said: “I want to be very clear in explaining the reality I’ve faced. The reason I hadn’t responded or progressed with anything sooner is because both yourself (YH) and Harlow Council continued to publish posts about me that caused a great deal of distress. At the same time, I was undergoing treatment while living with secondary progressive MS and Lupus conditions that severely impact my daily life.

The council offered me a one-year contract with a two-week eviction clause, despite everything I had done to turn around a derelict site and feed thousands in the community. After investing so much emotionally, physically, and financially, that situation was devastating. I am one person, doing the best I can while dealing with significant health challenges.

The funds raised have always been held transparently for the purpose of supporting the community. The remaining money is still being carefully managed with the intention of doing good but due to the breakdown in trust and the way I was treated, I needed time to recover and reassess how best to move forward without causing myself further harm.

“I remain committed to making a positive difference, but I will do so on terms that safeguard both my health and the integrity of the mission that people so generously supported”.

Harlow Council are still planning to create a community orchard in the Cannons Gate allotment area.

Harlow Council set to turn former Canons Gate allotment into new community orchard

Conclusion

As we have stated, 14,993 people donated a total of £254.451 to the GoFundMePage.

We think they were and are entitled to have a clear picture of where every penny went.

We still don’t think that is clear.

We know that there was £254.451 in the GFM account.

The next financial figures we saw was the A Meal On Me With Love CIC accounts published in December 2024.

That account had a figure of £150.783.

So, there is a difference of £103.668.

However, as the CIC accounts state: £70,848 was distributed to a number of organisations across the town.

That leaves us with £183.603

Which should mean that the CIC accounts should have had £183.603 and not £150.783.

So where did the £32.820 go?

It could have gone on GoFundMe fees or on food parcels or something else but we just don’t feel it was fully explained.

As you may see from the CIC accounts published in Dec 2024. There was £150,783. But there were deductions for:

Taxation and security costs: £33,404

Other Creditors: £10,580

Which brought us to £106,801.

Roll forward to April 2025 and the recent announcement re the £50,000 to the Foodbank.

As you can see (above) we did ask about the remaining £56,801.

As a Confirmation Statement, has just been issued, we may have to wait until December 2025.

Because, if you put both sums together, we cannot see where £89,621 donated by 14,993 has been spent. All we are asking, on behalf of 14,993, is where has that been spent?