Nantwich Food Festival volunteers came agonisingly close to winning the King’s Award for Voluntary Services (KAVS).
The team was shortlisted for the prestigious award for all its efforts in organising the annual festival and in supporting Nantwich Foodbank.
They just missed out on winning the award as they were up against amazing volunteer groups around the UK.
But Sir Martyn Lewis CBE, chair of the KAVS National Assessment Committee, was full of praise for the food festival team.
He told Christine Farrall (chair of Nantwich Food Festival): “The King’s Award for Voluntary Service is the highest accolade given to volunteer groups across the UK and the very fact that you were nominated independently for this honour shows how highly local people think of you.
“I hope that your volunteers will be able to take great pride in this.
“Our local and national assessors were impressed by your substantial achievements in supporting your local community.
“The work your group does for the community was very much admired by the National Assessment Committee.
“Please convey to your volunteers our warm appreciation of all you do. We hope that your success continues well into the future.”
Christine added: “We were so pleased to hear that we had been nominated for this accolade, however we appreciate that the criteria for this award have to be incredibly high.
“My fellow directors and I are proud and humbled to hear that we were thought sufficiently worthy of such a high award; we are all long term Festival volunteers, and long may we continue to be able to do such rewarding work.
“Nantwich Food Festival has always been a totally volunteer-led and run event, though it is such a huge one that ‘event’ seems inadequate to describe it.
“Many of our key team members work solidly throughout the year to ensure that our high professional standards are maintained and even enhanced.
“Our additional events in support of Nantwich Foodbank over the past five years have extended our reach to support key elements of the community, plus some of our volunteers also volunteer for The Nantwich Show.”
The next event in support of Nantwich Foodbank clients will take place in a “Drop and Go” donation event.
This collection of donations for Foodbank clients will take place on Saturday November 30 from 10am to 1pm at Brine Leas High School on Audlem Road.
Christine added: “We urge as many people as possible to call around with their donations.
“We will be there – rain, snow or sleet – some of us in Santa costumes, ready to accept your donations for those in real need.”
So who were the winners and how close was the team from Nantwich