As bars and restaurants have been forced to close throughout the country the trade’s historic lobby group has pitched in financially.
In response to the unprecedented pressure on the hospitality industry Cooks have made a once in a lifetime amount available through their charity fund.
The Trustees have made grants amounting to £58,000 to date to those suffering financial hardship directly or indirectly from the Covid pandemic – five to catering-related charities totalling £53,000 and a further £5,000 to members of the Company. It is also understood that a total of £270,000 has been made available.
Past Master Oliver Goodinge, Chairman of Trustees said: “As the lockdown continues and financial pressures increase, the Trustees continue to invite members of the company on behalf of themselves or their relatives who are suffering financial hardship to ask for assistance via application to the Clerk. After all, our forefathers set aside these funds for just these circumstances. Any application will of course be treated confidentially.” Due to the objects of the Charity, this fund has had to be limited to chefs and cooks or members of the Company or their relatives who are suffering financially. However, the Company which has a separate fund that effectively pays for its running, has made a further £50,000 available to worthwhile causes that do not fall under the Charity remit.
The donations come at a time when the charity fund was already considered to be under pressure and members of the Company were looking at ways to cut back on donations.
That review came before the recent stock market plunge which has seen the combined assets of the Company and Charity plunge by around £1.7m although the charity fund has been less affected as the investment strategy has been more cautious.
The pandemic has affected the Company in many others ways. Social distancing has clearly undermined one of the Livery’s key pillars, which is socialising – or fellowship – and the Master, Commodore David Smith saw his year in office cut short in March when the rounds of dinners and functions ended abruptly.
There have been tragic consequences with one member, who had underlying health conditions, dying of Coronavirus and another Graham Craddock undergoing a nerve-wracking spell in intensive care in Vietnam after contracting the virus.
And the fate of a once in a lifetime dinner planned for October at the Mansion House remains in question.
STOP PRESS
Covid-19 Grants
As the magazine was going to press charity trustees received the first interim reports from the beneficiary charities. They showed that 190 cooks or chefs have directly benefited – Hospitality Action (40), Springboard (20), House of St Barnabas (9), The Clink Charity (100) and Beyond Food Foundations (21).
Amongst the Covid help are £50 food parcels/supermarket vouchers, rent arrears, payment of household bills, purchase of TV and licence, purchase of a laptop to complete studies online, cooker/oven, clothing and bedding on release from prison, rents and deposit, online training and one-to-one support for chefs/cooks, assistance with universal credit and other benefit applications. And responses have already begun to come in. One Clink graduate wrote: “Thank you so much for the vouchers. This is a scary time for me and if I didn’t have the Clink to help me I don’t
know what I would do.”
And a recipient of Hospitality Action wrote: “Thank you (HA) so much for all you’re doing for those of us in hospitality who have faced a lot of uncertainty in this pandemic. It’s brought much needed light.”
The Nominated Charities
The nominated charities so far are The Clink, House of St Barnabas, Springboard, Hospitality Action and Beyond Food.
The Clink works with prisoners in various fine dining and event kitchens at Brixton, High Down, Downsview and Cardiff to provide training and then, on release, find them jobs and accommodation. It also keeps a support team in place to help ex-offenders re-assimilate into society. Since the outbreak and the shutting of pubs, clubs and restaurants, at least 30 graduates have lost their roles and some their accommodation. This is a critical time to maintain the break in the cycle of reoffending and the Trustees made £10,000 available to help establish a hardship fund for direct benefit – eg food vouchers and rent – to Clink graduate chefs.
House of St. Barnabas runs skills and confidence-building courses to previously homeless individuals twice a year in its Soho Square Members’ Club with a support team to help the students and graduates with jobs and accommodation. The Cooks Charity supports the kitchen element of those courses. At least seven of their graduates have lost their roles and some their accommodation. Cooks have made £3,000 available to a hardship fund.
Springboard FutureChef is the national cookery competition for schoolchildren but Springboard also has a support network available to former competitors and others experiencing barriers to employment seeking a
career in hospitality. Many have lost jobs and the Trustees have made £10,000 available from existing 2019-20
charity funds for specific dedicated skills and advisory support to chefs and cooks.
Hospitality Action is a national charity helping individuals into the industry. Early in the pandemic, it set up a hardship fund and the Cooks Charity Trustees decided that the group would be the primary vehicle for supporting cooks and chefs as they had the systems in place to assess problems. We have made £20,000 available for direct financial benefit to chefs and cooks, who had
Beyond Food runs an apprentice scheme for previously homeless people with qualifications at its Brigade restaurant in Tooley Street by London Bridge station. It also supports the apprentices and finds them future roles and accommodation and is supported by other livery companies and the Savoy Education Trust. They have set up a support line and the trustees made £10,000 available.
