Last week we donated $1,000 to Feeding America, which they tell us has paid for 10,000 meals for Americans struggling right now. We've also been supporting a Kenyan girl's higher education, in memory of a friend of Radical Tea Towel.

You ever feel a bit down these days?

I think I have a magic cure for you: giving.

In late April, I wrote to you about small ways that Radical Tea Towel was trying to contribute to society amidst this pandemic situation. We'd recently donated to a food bank organisation in the UK, and I asked you for some suggestions in the US too.

Several of you recommended Feeding America.

Feeding America made it very easy for us to donate on their website, by calculating how many meals our contribution would pay for. It turns out our support of $1,000 means they can give out 10,000 meals to families in need through their network of nationwide food banks!

I think there's something about giving - however small the act - that as well as helping others, can't help but give you good feelings.

I think 10,000 meals sounds 'awesome' (as you Americans would say!), and I just want to thank all of you, because it's our customers who have made this possible. In fact, if you're reading this, several of those meals are likely directly down to you!

You know what also sounds really cool to me? It's that even if you're just able to donate $10 to Feeding America, that's still 100 meals! (hint for next time ;) )

That was all we'd planned to donate from our US business for now, but then I received an email bringing back some sad memories.

Something I haven't shared before regarding the founding story of Radical Tea Towel US is that when I first visited your country a few years ago (to attend a business conference and ask people what they thought of our English tea towels), moments after landing at the airport, I received some terrible news that my close friend Berenika had died in a plane accident in Kenya.

Berenika was gregarious, enthusiastic and smart to boot. We met studying political science in our first week in university in the early 2000s. Just a few weeks before her death, I'd visited her in Warsaw, Poland, and told her about my idea of bringing Radical Tea Towel to the US, which she was very excited about!

Tragically, she never got to see how that turned out.

Above: Berenika in Somalia, where she worked as a reporter for the United Nations. I wrote an obituary for the Guardian after she died.

This week, Berenika's friend Lindsey emailed regarding the 'Berenika Memorial Fund'. It was created after we lost Berenika, with the funds used to support a bright Kenyan girl's university education (young Marion Abiona, who is hoping to become a teacher). The fund needed some extra support to cover Marion's final year.

So I decided Radical Tea Towel US would make a contribution there too. Berenika gave us support in the early days, and who knows, perhaps I wouldn't be writing to you now if it wasn't for her!

Anyway, I just wanted to share the news about these donations with you, given that it's you, our readers and customers, who keep the lights on around here.

We'll keep making donations to good causes when we can and where we feel we can help. I won't write to you every time, but I'll try to keep our US donations page up to date, to complement our UK donations page which has been going for a while now.

If you know of any good organisations promoting history and political education, we always love hearing your suggestions of who to support.

I hope you're keeping your spirits up. Give yourself a pat on the back for the meals you've given today, and do keep helping others - you'll both feel good about that!

Who else should we be supporting? Let us know in the comments below.