Sandton chefs give back to those in need

Chefs of the Sandton Chef Circle treated 15 children of St Laurence’s Children’s Haven to a fun afternoon filled with food, activities and toys.

The Sandton Chef Circle is a society of chefs from Sandton and the surrounding areas who get together every two months to network and share their knowledge and experiences over a set lunch at one of the chef’s places of work.

The children were spoiled with dozens of toys from the chefs as well as a generous donation of 100 books from Exclusive Books.

Ciro Beverage Solutions also came on board and offered to sponsor R300 for each chef that attends the lunches. This money was saved over the year and a R20 000 donation was given to the haven.

Stephen Billingham of the South African Chefs Association, said last year was the first year that they had decided to host an event for the children and all the chefs decided to continue this year. “We realised there needed to be a secondary purpose,” he said.

“The key purpose is communication, networking, training, skills development and conversation and then we wondered if we could do something more.”

Billingham added that many of the chefs have young children and would have access to toys which they could donate to the haven. He added that last year’s event was so wonderful they decided to continue to tradition and invited the children and their caregivers once again.

Abigail Branders, a caregiver at St Laurence’s said the home was a non-profit organisation which did not receive any government subsidy so they relied on the generosity of others to help care for the children at the home.

Branders extended a heartfelt thank you to the chefs for their donations to the children. “Everything we get is an absolute blessing and it goes straight to our children so thank you for this wonderful donation just before Christmas, it means everything, not only to us but the children as well.”

For more information on how to assist St Laurence’s Children’s Haven visit www.childrenshaven.co.za

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