A new charitable trust

The food and wine festival also has huge educational importance to Christchurch, particularly with the founding of charity ‘The Christchurch Food Festival Education Trust’, thought to be a first for UK food festivals. The trust has the aim of educating the local community about making informed choices about food and healthy eating. According to Festival Founder and President Mary Reader, the foundation has been established to help secure festival activities for the future as it opens the opportunity for it to raise its own funding. She said: “Since its inception, the festival has always aimed to include food education amongst its activities…. With the launch of the trust, it is hoped that more money will be available for the promotion of educational work and healthy eating, and the enjoyment of food in general.”

Highlighting the festival’s dedication to providing access to food-related education is its involvement with schools in Christchurch. Initiatives with local Secondary Schools have been in place for the past seven years; however, this was also extended to cover Primary Schools for the first time in 2007. During the first year, pupils were invited to take part in competitions designed to improve their understanding of healthy eating, and in the run up to the contests Mrs Reader visited schools with chefs from local restaurants to provide students with demonstrations and interactive workshops. Commenting on the initiative, she said: “It’s so important for children to find out about healthy food from an early age and I’m delighted that the festival can provide children with information about food they may not have tried which can be nutritious and tasty at the same time.”

Competitions for schools

For the 2007 competitions, Secondary School pupils were invited to create and prepare a delicious healthy meal, whilst children from Primary Schools were tasked with designing a mock healthy meal on a 3-D plate. Entrants for the Secondary Schools contest were then whittled down to three finalists who were invited to prepare dishes in a marquee in Saxon Square during the festival. 15-year-old Kirsti Maybank from Twynham School was crowned the eventual winner for her delicious serving up of salmon in champagne sauce served on a bed of rocket, spinach and watercress. Celebrity Chef Jean-Christophe Novelli presented Kirsti with her prize and said he was so impressed with the entries that he generously matched the prize fund and invited the three finalists to attend his Hertfordshire-based cookery school. Lily Waltham was named the winner of the Primary Schools contest for her colourful 3-D plate demonstrating chicken skewers with cous cous and salsa, along with full recipe details.

Mrs Reader has been pleased to receive positive feedback from all of the schools involved and has been sent numerous letters of thanks. She said: “One letter that stands out is from Dr Terry Fish, the Head teacher of Twynham School. He thanks us for our involvement stating that it has had a: ‘Hugely positive impact on students with record numbers of food students competing… It has been highly beneficial to raise the profile of food within a real context and great publicity for the school and the Borough in general.’ It’s so rewarding to hear such positive feedback from the schools involved. We’re looking forward to continuing our education work and hope to expand it further in the future. The benefits really are enormous.”

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1. Introduction
2. Skill development
3. A new charitable trust
4. Looking to the future
5. Photo Gallery
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