1 0 : Days to go
is the brainchild of the Better Food Foundation, the charity founded by Jamie Oliver. Back in 2002, Jamie established a unique and pioneering restaurant group, called Fifteen, that uses the magic of food to give young people a chance to have a better future.
Thinking of a way to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of Fifteen and the Foundation, 10 of the original restaurant chairs were set aside in that hope that a number of reputable artists would consider redesigning them as part of a quirky fundraising idea. Given the chairs had been rather battered and bruised over the restaurant’s 10-year history, renowned furniture designers Fritz Hansen were approached to help with the project.
Fritz Hansen and the Better Food Foundation have been friends for a number of years, and they kindly supported Fifteen with a significant donation of restaurant furniture back in 2010.
The Better Food Foundation has BIG ambitions for the next 10 years and there’s lots to do to raise much-needed funds. With this in mind, three key fundraising events were born: the BIG Chair Project, the BIG Feastival and the BIG Night Out.
Jamie is the founder of the Better Food Foundation and the inspiration behind all the BIG projects. He is supported by a group of eight Foundation trustees who oversee the charitable activities, campaigns and fundraising events.
There are over 20 Fritz Hansen ANT chairs:
15 will be reserved for an online auction, at which anyone can make a bid. The remaining six have been reserved for an online lottery; by making a donation of £5, 6 lucky winners will receive one of the following artist chairs:
Cath Kidston
Jamie Oliver & David Loftus
Julien MacDonald
Matthew Williamson
Superdry
Emma Tissier
The lottery licence and promotion is administered by our fundraising friends Charities Trust, who will likewise inform the winners of the chairs on the 23rd October 2012.
Each participating artist was given two Fritz Hansen ANT chairs – one for practice and one for the masterpiece. There are a number of artists who kindly opted to submit both chairs as part of a set.
Jamie loves all things design and textile based, and he’s been toying around with food-themed fabric for some time. The idea of a hand-painted fabric design by Jamie was pitched to Fritz Hansen and they loved the concept. Obviously this meant he needed to use a different kind of chair. Selling them Jamie’s vision of stuffing the chair with “foodie potpourri” was another story.
In a creative session Jamie came up with an idea of stuffing the Fritz Hansen Chair with dried aromatic food. His Egg chair will be filled with ingredients that represent the four seasons, which includes everything from vanilla, to oranges and lemons, to rosemary and thyme, to cloves and star anise.
The BIG target is to raise £400,000 for the Better Food Foundation.
As much as possible! Naturally there are some cost overheads with a project of this size, but the charity is pulling in loads of favours from friends and supporters along the way. The (unavoidable) costs to date include the online auction platform (rented), the charity competition fees, couriers for moving the chairs to and fro, food and drink for the auction night and a campaign team to make sure it gets the publicity it deserves. The more publicity it gets, the more money raised for the Foundation.