Paisley singer Paolo Nutini donates over £100k to home town charity

Paisley singer Paolo Nutini has donated over £100,000 to a community charity set up over 25 years ago to support those facing food poverty.

The star, who previously staged a concert to raise funds for the Star Project and Doctors Without Borders, handed over the massive £101,886 check earlier this week. It came as the charity finished their 25-day celebration of the project which has supported over 60,000 people over two and a half decades.

We previously reporter how the singer set up a concert in his home town in a bid to support the medical charity’s work in Gaza and to bolster the “amazing” efforts of the Star Project in tackling poverty, social isolation and mental well-being. Instead of buying tickets, fans entered a £3 raffle for a pair of tickets for the town hall show on August 6.

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This week the singer handed over the cash raised from the event - a massive moment for the charity which started off humbly with a drop-in at a tenement flat in Shortroods in 1999, reports the Paisley Daily Express.

Heather Kay, manager of the Star Project, said the Paisley concert was undoubtedly one of the many highlights of the past 25 years, explaining Paolo’s support had put the charity on the world stage.

“We can’t thank Paolo, his team, all the wonderful people who text [to win a ticket] and the great people and organisations who helped us promote it enough,” Heather said.

“Your generosity will make a huge difference and help us remain as responsive as possible to our community’s needs.

“The concert itself was wonderful and it was great to see everyone excited; it was hugely positive for the Star Project and Paisley.”

The gig however is just one of many highlights for the charity which was initially set up by local churches to tackle poverty and provide practical support to families in the Shortroods area.

It tackles food poverty with a community fridge and pantry; tackles social isolation with a host of activities such as Men’s Shed and toddlers group Little Stars and neurodivergent support group; hosts a series of creative workshops and is integral to campaigning for change, working with Renfrewshire Council on making a fairer and more equal society.

Devastated to see poverty retain such a tight group on Paisley, the Star Project and its members are however proud to still be here and more capable of supporting the community than ever.

Heather said: “Building up to this birthday we were speaking with our community trustees about marking this big birthday and asking should we be celebrating when the need for support is higher than ever.

“One of our members said, ‘it’s not about the need to be here but about celebrating the fact you are here’ and that was really important to hear.

“In community work it is quite rare for a grassroots organisation to still be going after all this time. Our ethos, our approach has never changed and we have never lost sight of that; we haven’t morphed into anything else.”

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