To mark the milestone the Jamie Oliver Group announced this year it will invest £450,000 in Jamie’s Ministry of Food Foundation as it implements a new circular funding model.
The Ministry of Food initially launched with five sites across Rotherham, Bradford, Leeds, Newcastle and Stratford – all with the aim to inspire young people and families to cook from scratch.
There are now 27 community sites and 43 schools across the UK, as well as a new presence in Australia and USA, each delivering Jamie-crafted recipes and resources to regional community centres and schools, in underserved communities.
With an additional 24 sites rolling out this year, the Ministry of Food will reach an extra 40,000 people in 2024 with this year’s additional investment going towards funding new programmes across Glasgow, Preston, Cambridge, Plymouth and more. The organisation aims to have reached nearly 160,000 people by the end of 2024.
The Ministry of Food also announced a new partnership with Food for Life as part of its mission to make good food possible for all through its schools and early years food education programmes.
Alison Corfield, head of social impact and sustainability at Jamie Oliver, said: “15 years of the Ministry of Food and a quarter of a century of Jamie’s social impact work is such an exciting opportunity for people to acknowledge and celebrate the power and importance of grass-roots education, and that the mission to get the nation cooking is still ongoing.
“We are thrilled as a business to be making a sizable donation every year to the Ministry of Food Foundation – bringing our social impact arm into the main body of The Jamie Oliver Group. We aim to reach one million lives by 2030 and are really excited to get more schools and sites on board.”