Restaurants Against Hunger

It's seven years since the British restaurant industry began its support for the charity Action Against Hunger. In that time, establishments up and down the country have raised £100,000 through special events, menus, promotions and raffles during the annual Action Against Hunger week.

The campaigns have made a real difference in the daily fight against hunger in the Third World, saving the lives of severely malnourished children and helping to enable people to feed themselves and their families.

In recognition of the industry's ongoing support for the charity, the annual week-long fundraising event taking place in October has been renamed Restaurants Against Hunger. "We wanted to communicate to the British public the fantastic support given by restaurants throughout the year," says Cara Wilkins, co-ordinator of Restaurants Against Hunger.

"The aim is to bring as many restaurants on board as possible to join our fight against hunger. By coming together, the catering community can make an even greater impact on the lives of the world's hungry. Each customer giving a small donation in a restaurant, each restaurant manager, owner or chef putting together a fundraising event, contributes towards making an enormous difference to the fight against hunger."

For restaurateurs and chefs - many of whom receive requests for help from all sorts of charities - Action Against Hunger is a fitting charity to be involved with.

Claudio Pulze, managing director of Cuisine Collection, which operates, among others, London restaurants Zaika and Al Duca, says: "The charity is particularly important to the people in this profession," he says. "What we do is quite superficial and frivolous and it makes me uneasy at times to think that while we may be spending hundreds of pounds on food and wine, there are many, many people in the world who are hungry. I'm therefore very keen to be involved in the charity."

Pulze has raised thousands of pounds for Action Against Hunger through his restaurants, simply by adding a £1 per person donation to every customer's bill during the charity week. "We always have a very good response," Pulze says. "We explain clearly what it's for, and people are very happy to contribute. If they should complain then we, of course, would remove the donation from their bill."

Among the many supporters of Action Against Hunger outside London is the Brazz group of brasseries in Taunton, Exeter and Bristol. Last year it donated £2,500 to the charity after several fundraising events, including Ian Fitzgerald, director of operations, running the Chicago Marathon.

"We're targeted by many charities on a regular basis and Action Against Hunger stood out for me as a very relevant choice for a restaurant business as well as being, of course, a very worthy charity," he says. "Customers don't object to a donation being added to their bill but we've found more interest is created by engaging them.

"Competitions such as guessing the vintage and provenance of wines, with the prize of a box of wine donated by a local wine merchant, have worked really well. We've also had local celebrities, such as TV presenter Judy Spiers, working behind our bars, top baristas coaching customers in making the perfect cappuccino, and wine auctions."

"Creating some fun around the donating hopefully serves to heighten awareness," says Fitzgerald. "I hope that having donated, our customers leave knowing a little more about the charity." This year Brazz is also donating 10p for every portion of garlic bread sold.

One restaurant has found that supporting Action Against Hunger has not only helped a worthwhile cause but has also provided a valuable boost to business. A year ago, Revolutions, a 52-seat restaurant in Chippenham, Wiltshire, was not performing well under management. In addition, new competition was opening in the town, so owners Sandie and Doug Webb decided to take over the running of the business.

The Webbs knew they needed publicity. "We were convinced that the bog-standard ad in the local paper was of little use, and so the day the Action Against Hunger information came through was really the start of our build towards success," Sandie says.

The couple decided to offer a no-choice, three-course meal at £13.95 for one evening and donate all the takings, including tips, to Action Against Hunger. "We offered the best-quality produce we could at a bargain price to showcase the new-style Revolutions Caf‚ Bar and Restaurant," Sandie says.

Although the restaurant was not packed that night - only 17 covers were served, raising £300, including £60 in tips - the articles and photographs that appeared in all three local newspapers helped to increase business. "It acted as a launch pad that saw us into the Christmas period," says Sandie, who's delighted to report that the restaurant's turnover is now four times that of a year ago.

She's already enthusiastically planning its involvement in October's Restaurants Against Hunger week. "We're producing a booklet of recipes which we'll give to customers in exchange for a donation," she says. "We'll be running another charity evening like last year, but this time we'll be full. It'll be a fun evening with a three-course dinner at £14.95 a head. Finally we plan to link into British Food Fortnight, which runs from the end of September into early October. We'll highlight three dishes - a starter, main course and dessert - which will be based on local recipes and using local produce, and for each one we sell we'll donate £1 to Restaurants Against Hunger."

Sandie summed up the feelings of a lot of chefs and restaurateurs who'll be supporting Restaurants Against Hunger this year. "It's important to celebrate the food we have, but at the same time we should be mindful of people less fortunate than ourselves."

Get involved!

To take part in this year's Restaurants Against Hunger fundraising week, from 13-19 October, further information can be obtained in one of the following ways:

• Telephone: 020 7232 0606
• E-mail: info@aahuk.org, quoting Restaurants Against Hunger
• Visit: www.restaurantsagainsthunger.org
• Write to: Action Against Hunger, Freepost LON15776, London SE1 3YY

Critics do their bit

A focal point of Restaurants Against Hunger will be the Too Many Critics gala dinners, in London and Manchester.

The brains behind the dinners - conceived two years ago - is restaurant reviewer Bill Knott, who continues to organise the London event. This year's dinners will once again be supported by the UK's leading food critics, who will join Giorgio Locatelli at his restaurant, Locanda Locatelli in London, and Paul Heathcote at Simply Heathcote's in Manchester, to cook for audiences that will include leading chefs and restaurateurs.

Among the critics who have agreed to take part in London are Charles Campion (ES Magazine), Terry Durack (The Independent on Sunday), Jill Dupleix (The Times), Fay Maschler (London's Evening Standard), Nick Lander (Financial Times), Jeremy Wayne (Tatler) and Kate Spicier (ES Magazine). Jancis Robinson will be head sommelier for the night.

In Manchester, critics-turned-chefs will include Matthew Fort (The Guardian), Caroline Stacey (The Independent), Giles Coren (The Times), Amanda Afiya (Caterer), Ray King (Manchester Evening News) and Paul Schofield (Manchester's Metro).

The first Too Many Critics dinner took place two years ago at the Circus Restaurant & Bar in London, with the event being held last year at the Cinnamon Club, London, where more than £7,300 was raised, with all the food and drink given free by sponsors.

The Manchester dinner will take place on 5 October during the annual Manchester Food & Drink Festival, when 180 guests will pay £100 a head. To reserve a place, call Simply Heathcote's on 0161-835 3536.

Only 90 tickets, priced at £120 per head, are available for the London dinner, being held on 12 October. To book a table, call Action Against Hunger on 020 7394 6300.

How the funds are used

The chefs and restaurateurs Caterer spoke to for this feature say that as well as Action Against Hunger being a relevant charity for the industry to support, they're encouraged that such a large proportion of the money raised by the organisation goes directly to those in need. Audited accounts for 2001 show that 91% of all Action Against Hunger's expenditure was used directly for relief organisations.

The £100,000 raised by restaurants over the last seven years could fund one of the following:

n Saving the lives of 4,000 severely malnourished children in Sudan, Ethiopia, Malawi, Sierra Leone and Afghanistan

n Distributing seeds to more than 7,000 families in Cambodia, Tajikistan and Malawi

n Digging and installing open wells in more than 100 villages, for easy access to safe drinking water in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Mali.

Action Against Hunger has been operating at the forefront of the fight against hunger and malnutrition in some 40 countries worldwide for nearly 25 years. It helps about five million of the most vulnerable each year, including children and their mothers, the elderly, displaced people and refugees.