The Christchurch Food Festival Education Trust (CFFET) is a registered charity, number 1127292, run by a board of Trustees with aims as set out in its Trust deed. These are to:
“Advance education and promote the health of the residents of Christchurch area by providing and / or assisting in the provision of education, training and guidance on nutritional health and food preparation.”
The Trust was formed in 2007 in order to achieve the educational aims of the Christchurch Food Festival. The formalisation of this work was a result of the increasing demand for the Festival’s work in schools, where students are provided with curriculum-related healthy eating and food preparation demonstrations with local chefs. As the work became more popular it was decided to set up a charity. Trustees were sought and in 2008 the charity was registered.
Since then, the Trust has undertaken a range of courses across all ages and situations around the Christchurch area. We provide grants for food and cooking education, events and courses: and so enable the Food Festival’s education work to continue. Our primary school cookery days are increasingly popular and continue to take place in most Christchurch junior schools, where we cook with over 1,000 children over a three-month period.
Several Life Skills cookery courses have been held in conjunction with local secondary schools to assist those students with special needs to gain confidence for the future. The courses have proved invaluable and have achieved great results. Additional funding has also allowed us to develop a project for all the year nine students in our secondary schools, where students learn enhanced cooking techniques and presentation skills from a leading local chef.
Our work needs funding and depends entirely upon donations. The Trust has received support from both Christchurch and Highcliffe Rotary Clubs, and is the recipient of money raised by the Festival’s charitable fundraising. We have also worked closely with the Waitrose Community Fund and Green Token Scheme. We also received generous donations from local landladies’ fundraising and from some local businesses.
We have also run fourteen extremely popular Kids Kitchen events during the annual Christchurch Food Festival which have involved sessions ranging from very young children to workshops for parents and children to cook together.
In 2018 we received a large donation from the will of Mrs Jean Hart, a local lady who wished to see her money used for the benefit of young people in the area. This has secured the future of our work and enabled us to expand our work in schools.