One of the earliest assets to join the TASTE ranks was Fudge – an ex-Cooperative milk tanker from the North East. Fudge (so called because of his numberplate FUJ 25C) was shipped to Nigeria in 2005 and fulfilled a vital role in the work of TASTE.
Each day during the dry season, Fudge would collect water from the City Water Department and sell it to companies and households for the overhead tank. The surplus generated by water sales helped offset our office costs and allowed us to accumulate a little extra to help needy communities.
Once a fortnight or so, Fudge would collect a shipment of water and then distribute it free of charge to a community within the city where the wells had dried. Households would only be able to collect enough water for two or three days but it was a tremendous blessing to the localities we served. And the response was always amazing gratitude.
But Fudge is no more. High repair bills forced us to scrap our much loved water tanker. We now have a replacement for Fudge – a flat bed lorry donated by Lawsons Builders’ Merchant with a plastic 10,000l tank purchased with a donation from Emmanuel Evangelical Church, Newport, South Wales.