A Northern Advocate Facebook post about a Northland pensioner who last week made her 10,000th jar of jam for hospice has gone viral with tens of thousands of people reading the story worldwide.
Gloria Crawford, of Waipapa, made national headlines in the ''jam scandal'' of 2009 when she was she was banned by food safety officials from making jam for sale in Kerikeri's hospice shop - because she made it at home instead of in a dedicated commercial kitchen.
She refused to give up, eventually winning her battle against bureaucracy, and is still going strong.
A photo celebrating her 10,000th jar of jam for Kerikeri's hospice shop was posted on the Advocate's Facebook page on Wednesday afternoon, and by 5pm on Thursday had attracted 286 shares, 312 comments, 5148 likes and 46,152 views. Those numbers were still climbing rapidly on Thursday evening.
Comments from around New Zealand, Australia, the UK, the US, Germany, Poland, Greece, Denmark and elsewhere praised Mrs Crawford's dedication and lamented food safety laws which had led to the demise of charity cooking.
Some suggested she be nominated for TVNZ's Good Sorts or a medal in the New Zealand Honours; one, perhaps not entirely seriously, called for her to be made prime minister.
Mrs Crawford is due to be recognised for her efforts at a get-together for Hospice Mid-Northland volunteers on November 30.
Still snowballing
Mrs Crawford's popularity continued unabated on Thursday night. As of midnight the story had been viewed 66,048 times globally. It had been shared 396 times, attracting 411 comments and 7235 likes.
