Gingerbread (charity) her marriage, Tessa Fothergill, a mother from London struggling with economic difficulties as a single parent, set up a local self-help group for others in a similar position. Fothergill was featured in the "Sunday Times", and the response from other single parents resulted in the creation of Gingerbread as a grassroots organisation providing community-level support for single parents. The name 'Gingerbread' came about after Fothergill saw a cafe called 'Golden Age Gingerbread' and liked the name. The National Council for One Parent Families and Gingerbread merged in 2007, and relaunched under the name Gingerbread in 2009. Head offices for Gingerbread
Gingerbread house people of Bergen, Norway, have built a city of gingerbread houses each year before Christmas. Named "Pepperkakebyen" (Norwegian for "the gingerbread village"), it is claimed to be the world's largest such city. Every child under the age of 12 can make their own house at no cost with the help of their parents. In 2009, the people of Bergen were shocked when the gingerbread city was destroyed in an act of vandalism. A group of building design, construction, and sales professionals in Washington, D.C., also collaborate on a themed "Gingertown" every year. In San Francisco, the Fairmont and St. Francis