GrantRadar

The Cooks Charity (Worshipful Company of Cooks of London)

The Elizabeth Fund

Small one-off grants of up to £1,000 (normally £500-£1,000) from the Cooks Charity's Elizabeth Fund, set up in January 2023 in memory of Queen Elizabeth II, for food-related projects or good causes that normally involve cookery and are connected with the City of London or the City Fringe boroughs of Camden, Islington, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Southwark and Westminster. Start-up projects are preferred and each grant must have an identifiable, positive, short-term impact. Applications are made by email to the Clerk at any time; in 2024-25 the Trustees made eight grants, mostly to community cookery projects.

Apply on the funder’s site
You could get
£500 – £1,000
no fixed round
Deadline
Rolling
apply any time
Effort
Light
short form, little evidence needed

Who can apply

  • Projects or good causes connected in some way with the City of London or the City Fringe boroughs of Camden, Islington, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Southwark and the City of Westminster; beneficiaries must be connected with the City
  • The fund's own pages do not set organisation types, income limits or a track-record requirement: it speaks of 'deserving food-related and/or cooking projects or good causes' and 'smaller food and cooking-related community initiatives', with a preference for start-ups and 'small, local charitable enterprise'
  • 2024-25 recipients were small local charities and community groups (e.g. a community hub, a women's group, a church-based cookery project)
  • Chefs directly involved in a cooking project may exceptionally receive personal cooking equipment, but the fund is for projects, not personal grants

What it funds

  • One-off, food-related projects or good causes that should normally involve cookery, connected with the City of London or the City Fringe boroughs, which would not otherwise be supported by the Cooks Charity's normal annual grant-giving

Grants must have an identifiable, positive, short-term impact and the project should be one-off rather than ongoing costs; 'start-up' projects are preferred.

There is no minimum, but Trustees normally expect grants of £500-£1,000 (maximum £1,000).

Personal cooking equipment (e.g. cook's whites or knives) for chefs directly involved with a cooking project is considered only exceptionally.

2024-25 grants included community cookery classes for disadvantaged residents in south Islington, a 16-week community-kitchen project for single mothers in Hackney, intergenerational cooking events in Rotherhithe, a cooking project for older people in Hackney, trainer upskilling at Hackney School of Food, and a cooking workshop for a women's group in Islington.

What it will not fund

  • Food banks
  • Routine expenditure to 'top up' an existing charity's running costs
  • Ongoing costs (projects must be one-off)
  • Kitchen refurbishment
  • Schemes that replace funding more properly provided by HM Government or a local authority
  • Purchase of kitchen equipment, unless the recipients can show exceptional need and have the funds to maintain it
  • Projects not food-related or not connected with the City of London or the City Fringe boroughs

How to apply

  1. Check the project is food-related (normally involving cookery), one-off, connected with the City of London or a City Fringe borough, and not in the exclusions list
  2. Write an application giving: a concise description of the project or activity and its relevance; your objectives and the identifiable, positive, short-term impact of the grant; a justification for the amount requested; your contact name, postal address, telephone number and email; and any other supporting information
  3. Email the application to the Clerk (clerk@cookslivery.org.uk)
  4. The Trustees' Advisory Panel discusses written applications and its recommendations go to the Trustees for final approval; Elizabeth Fund grants are made by the Trustees

No deadlines are published. The Charity's 2025 annual report says applications should normally reach the Clerk at least seven days before the meeting at which they are to be considered, and that Elizabeth Fund money 'is often given at short notice'.

Funded projects may be mentored or monitored by members of the Company.

Have ready

  • Written application covering the project description, objectives and short-term impact, justification of the amount, and contact details

No other documents are specified; any supporting information can be added.

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