Founded in 1980, the Academy of Culinary Arts is Britain’s leading professional association of over 400 Head Chefs, Pastry Chefs, Restaurant Managers and quality suppliers.  Our members are united in a common purpose ‘giving back’ to the industry by investing their time and expertise through education and training young people who are the emerging generation of young chefs and waiters.   They do this purely for the development and improvement of culinary arts, health and nutrition and a better understanding of food provenance and those who produce it.  The welfare and protection of the environment is becoming ever more important.

WHAT IS CHEFS ADOPT A SCHOOL

Begun in 1990, and officially registered as a charity in 2001, Chefs Adopt a School teaches children about food and cookery, with a focus on appreciation of food, where it comes from, why we need it (nutrition and hygiene), and how to cook it.  Our ‘teachers’ are all passionate professional chefs – mostly members of The Academy of Culinary Arts.  However, we also have an on –staff team of chef/lecturers who are employed by us to deliver the programme to children around the country.  Currently Chefs Adopt a School is delivering the healthy eating message through food education and cookery to over 21,000 children annually.

We believe that food and cookery is a life skill with which every child should be equipped in order to grow into a self confident, independent and healthy adult.   The most significant impact of Chefs Adopt a School is that it can be integrated in all school subjects such as numeracy and literacy, maths, science, religious studies, history, geography etc. We have many cases witnessed first-hand when less academic children who have previously been struggling at school have ‘lit up’, contributed and blossomed once the subject of food has been introduced into their lesson plans.

This is because learning about other subjects through food makes more sense to children, helps them learn and so gives them newly found self-assurance. This is also the case with students of the many Special Educational Needs schools we have ‘adopted’.   The charity is funded through grants from the North West Development Agency, the Savoy Educational Trust, the Worshipful Company of Cooks and Aston Villa.  We also derive financial support from vigorous fund raising.