Last March the Rothschild Foundation funded a scheme to provide meals for school children and local residents shielding, cooked by Waddesdon’s chefs. We’re delighted to announce that the scheme is recommencing on 22 January 2021.

Working with a local organisation Aspire and the local Waddesdon Community Group the scheme provided meals for pupils who would normally receive a free school meal and local residents shielding from the villages of Waddesdon, Westcott and Winchendon during the Covid pandemic lockdown last year.

It started on Monday 23 March 2020 and finished on Wednesday 15 July 2020, with meals provided every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Recipients were given a hot main meal such as a hotpot or curry and a dessert such as a scone or cake.

A volunteer from the Waddesdon Community Support Group delivering meals

On average 120 individual students and 80 local residents were provided meals each time and over the period of the scheme 4,482 meals were delivered to school children and 2,850 to local residents – a total of 7,332 meals!

Waddesdon’s catering team, including chefs Craig Clarke, Ben Thurkettle, Harry Cox and Dan Skinner, cooked these meals for the community to enjoy. In total the chefs gave up their own time for 17 weeks and made 51 individual trips during that period to Waddesdon so the scheme could run for the duration.

Waddesdon’s chefs

The Rothschild Foundation funded the scheme with a grant of £25,000 to cover meal costs and packaging.

We received positive and heartfelt messages from the local residents who wanted to show their appreciation to the Rothschild Foundation and the Trustees who supported the grant funding for the scheme.

Thank you card from local residents

It is with pleasure that we can announce that the scheme is recommencing on Friday 22 January, again working with Aspire and the local Community Group.

This time around we are providing school children with a family meal rather than an individual meal, to ensure that the whole family receives a nutritious meal once a week. Individual meals will still be provided for local residents or a couple if shielding in the same household.

Meals will consist of hearty dishes such as shepherds pie, roast dinner or lasagne followed by a dessert and will be provided every Friday by our Waddesdon chefs. The Rothschild Foundation has funded the scheme with a grant of £7,500 and we anticipate the scheme will run to either February half term or the end of March.