The Honor Chapman Foundation Mentoring Awards
The Honor Chapman Mentoring Award celebrates the life and achievements of Honor Chapman by awarding each year a substantial prize to a young food or farming entrepreneur.
Honor Chapman was one of the best business mentors of her generation. A property and planning expert with an innovative approach to urban regeneration, she also cared passionately about the role and value of food. The first CEO of Think London, the capital’s official foreign direct investment agency, she was also a highly acclaimed dairy farmer with an award-winning Jersey herd. An inspirational leader and mentor, Honor had much to offer and carried out all her roles, particularly her mentoring roles with enthusiasm, diligence, skill and vigour.
In Honour of Honor, The Honor Chapman Mentoring Award was launched in 2012. It recognises her inspirational work in the business community as well as her love of farming, food and the countryside. Each award, given annually, runs for two years. In year one, the beneficiary receives a cash bursary, mentoring advice and guidance from the Foundation’s mentors. In the second year, they will receive further advice and help from food industry and business experts, depending on their specific needs.
The application process for this year’s award is now open and the Foundation is inviting all young entrepreneurs who can demonstrate a passion for real food with an inventive use of land or property to apply. The award winner will be announced at the end of the year.
The first Mentoring Award went to Cultivate Oxford, a social enterprise that brings fresh, local, sustainably-grown food from farmers direct to the city (Oxford) and the surrounding communities. The five acre market garden and other local producers provide the produce sold in the VegVan, a mobile greengrocer that travels according to demand within the city’s boundaries.
With the help of the award and the support of the mentors, Cultivate Oxford aims to produce good local food, fairly priced and accessible for more of the local community by encouraging ecological farming that is sustainable for generations to come. By bringing together growers and consumers to support a vibrant local food culture, Cultivate Oxford’s vision is to strengthen the local food economy through a model of co-operative enterprise.
Dan Betterton, founding executive director of Cultivate Oxford says, ‘We are delighted to have been selected as the beneficiary of the first Honor Chapman Mentoring Award. Already with their financial and mentoring support, we have increased our production by xx% and have a clearer view of how to develop and expand Cultivate over the next five years.’
To apply for this years’ award or for further information on the application process, please visit www.thehonorchapmanfoundation.co.uk
