The Freemasons lodge in Broxburn has played its part in helping distribute over £1 million worth of goods to charities and community social enterprises across Scotland over the last two years.
Masons at Lodge Buchan St John No 636 started the campaign when the pandemic started in April 2020 - hoping to help community groups in dealing with lockdown.
The campaign, called the ‘Lodge Buchan St John 636 Inter Province Community Care Initiative’, has so far helped in distributing over £1 million worth of goods across the country.
The Freemasons had already been investing in the local community in Broxburn since they moved back to Broxburn Bowling Club from Deans in 2018, with monthly calls for cash donations to local charities and food banks.
The new campaign coincided with the foundation of the ‘Scottish Constitution Freemasonry Support’ Facebook page, which catalogues charitable donations by Freemasons globally.
Now the page has over 6000 members - with the current tally standing at over £1.8 million worth of identifiable donations from 2020, donations can either be goods, like food or clothes, or financial donations.
The Broxburn Lodge of the Freemasons contributed a large portion of the donations, in no small part for the efforts of Kevin Taggart, former Master of the Broxburn Freemasons.
Kevin runs a haulage company, and used his connections in the industry to save produce - food, clothes, etc - from going to landfill, diverting it to local community groups that needed it most.
Broxburn masons would then help in distributing full artic lorries full of produce around West Lothian from various local companies, supermarkets, and other businesses.
The amount of produce quickly became too much to distribute around West Lothian, so using their Masonic connections the lodge began the Inter Province Community Care Initiative.
Kevin spoke about the beginning of the campaign, he said: “I still remember the first night we got all the pallets to distribute - I could have cried, I thought - how are we going to get rid of this?
“But it’s amazing how quick it went, lodges from Edinburgh, East Lothian, Glasgow, Inverness, Ross and Cromarty, all over the place accepted pallets to distribute in their communities.
“We stored it all on a farm outside of Broxburn and we had to empty these two massive grain silos just to be able to hold all the stock before distribution.
“A lot of people don’t think about it but the levels of poverty in this country are actually unbelievable, one mason attended a community member and the old guy only had the clothes on his back and a tin of soup to eat.”
Just earlier this month the Broxburn masons passed on £10,000 worth of eggs - (35,560 eggs) - to the Provincial Grand Lodge of Glasgow, who distributed the produce to Drumchapel Food Bank, Ruchazie Pantry, Castlemilk Pantry, Garthamloch pantry, Bairns Necessities, and St Andrews Church, Drumchapel.
Last month Kevin Taggart and Alan Dillett donated, on behalf of lodge 636, food, toys, and arts and crafts materials worth £3000 to ‘The Hub’ at Broxburn Academy supporting children with emotional, behavioural, and social issues.
Alan Dillett, master of Lodge Buchan St John 636, spoke about the lodge’s community outreach, he said: “The masons have always been charitable, there are two official Masonic care homes and for years we’ve organised cash donations to local charities and community groups.
“It just wasn’t published in the past - now with social media we can show people what we’re doing.
“However we want to offer more than just money - we want to support our community with our time, volunteering, and distribution.
“A lot of people forget that the Masons were the hub of the community at one point and conspiracy theorists like to challenge things they don’t understand.
“We’re not a secret society - we’re trying to be as transparent as possible, we had an open day in August advertised on the community boards in Broxburn and everyone was welcome to attend.
“There are myths surrounding, who can and can’t join the masons - it doesn’t matter about your beliefs, or the colour of your skin or anything else, any man can join the Masons.
“No one is excluded, we want to get rid of the stigma - we work with all groups, charities and good causes, we want to support everybody and anyone that needs it.
“We want to encourage young men to join the Freemasons - and for that to happen we need to give back to our community and show that we do care.
“We’re looking to get away from that old reputation and modernise the Masons - like any group, if we don’t modernise, then how can we move forward in today’s society.”
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