Funky shirts raise awareness

By Kate Lockyer

Walk into Rayner’s Meats in New Farm on a Friday and you will be greeted with smiles from the team, and a whole lot of colours from their funky shirts.

Owner Tom Barratt said they started ‘funky shirt Friday’ to raise awareness for mental health.

“Everyone comes into the butcher’s shop to chat while they buy their meat, and we’re always here for them to go out of the shop happier than when they came in,” Mr Barratt said.

“It’s the old adage – you go into a butcher’s shop and they’re always on for a yarn.”

He said customers love coming in and always chat about the shirts, and they now have a collection of funky shirts that they rotate through each week.

They have been running ‘funky shirt Friday’ since last November when they signed up for Movember and raised about $1,000 for mental health.

They bought colourful shirts from Trade Mutt to start conversations about the issue and decided to continue wearing them each Friday.

Trade Mutt was started by Brisbane tradesmen Daniel Allen and Ed Ross to start more conversations about mental health and take a proactive approach to suicide prevention, donating 50 per cent of their profits to counselling service TIACS.

The butchers at Rayner’s Meats have signed up to do Movember again this year, so keep an eye out for some funky moustaches as well as their shirts.