Pictured above: Tim Woodward, Mark Hix and Tim Maddams
Can I please draw your attention to the Eat Game Awards which have nominated The Country Food Trust as their charity. The awards are sponsored by Purdey, Boisedale and Taste of Game. Voting is now open until the end of September, ahead of the awards ceremony in London on October 9th. Please look at the website and see the amazing nominees and lend them your support https://eatgameawards.co.uk/voting You will see that in the penultimate category “Game Hero” the nominees include our amazing chef Tim Maddams and our game dealer Lincolnshire Game and me on behalf of our charity. We are up against stiff competition. But you have three votes in each category and we would be very grateful if you would support the three of us.
You will see that we have redesigned our website and split out the accredited shoots that support us from the companies that support us. We are delighted that so many shoots as well as companies are signing up to support us by either donating £750 or by promising to raise funds for us during the season. We have recently introduced a trade rate for our products so if you would like a minimum of a pallet of our food (1,008 pouches) then the rate is now £2.28 per pouch. Many shoots are using our meals alongside or instead of the traditional brace at the end of the day or to feed guns or beaters. With this offer for every two pouches you buy we can feed someone in need. If you need less then this quantity then the meals remain available to buy online through our website or directly by contacting us at enquiries@thecountryfoodtrust.org. Individual meals cost £3.85 or if you buy a box of 8 they are £26 or £3.25 per pouch. In both these case for every meal you buy we will donate one to someone in need.
We are currently expanding our trial of The Country Food Trust Initiative (CFTI). This allows shoots to help feed local charities with the help of their local game dealer. Estates donate their birds to their existing dealer and pay donation of £1 per bird to our charity. We then use this money to buy the meat from the dealer and donate the meat to local charities. The charities will also receive a set of brilliant recipes written specifically for them by well known chefs. With amazing pictures by James Murphy thus far we have recipes from Tim Maddams, Mark Hix, Juanita Hennessey and Brian Turner and we have plenty more in the pipeline so keep an eye on our social media to see the latest offerings. At the end of each season we will be working with local media to publicise the amount of food provided by shooting estates to local charities.
We hope next year to roll this out across the country and significantly increase the number of people we can help. Last year we fed 4,000 people under the scheme in Suffolk and this year we are expanding across East Anglia as well as in Oxfordshire with the help of our amazing supporters at GunsOnPegs. If you would like to participate or know more then please register with GunsOnPegs (digbytaylor@gunsonpegs.com) and we will keep you informed of our progress.