Our treat: college students develop a taste for charity

Edinburgh College serves up a treat and raises £885 for St Columba’s Hospice

More than 500 people tickled their tastebuds at Edinburgh College’s first food and drink festival last week – and they raised £885 for the college’s charity of the year, St Columba’s Hospice.

The treat food festival brought 20 local food and drink producers to the college, who offered a wide range of samples to guests. To name just a few, stallholders included Black & Gold rapeseed oil, Chillilicious chilli chutneys, dips and sauces, The Marshmallow Lady’s homemade flavoured marshmallows as well as a selection of Invararity wines, Thistly Cross ciders and Great Grog Scottish beers.

Edinburgh College’s hospitality students used their skills to create and serve complimentary hot meals, as well as produce breads, cakes and chocolates, which were available to taste and buy. Top chefs including Neil Forbes of Edinburgh’s Café St Honoré (pictured below) gave live cooking demonstrations and a charity fundraising prize draw was also held.

In total, the prize draw and donations from the public, students and staff, helped the festival raise £885 for St Columba’s Hospice, the college’s chosen charity of the year. All the money raised at treat and at other Edinburgh College charity events this year will go towards completing and running the charity’s new hospice, which will allow them to continue to provide the best possible palliative care to their patients and support their family and friends for generations to come. The building is almost complete and St Columba’s are preparing to open the doors of the new building later this spring.

Carol Fyfe, head of tourism and hospitality at Edinburgh College, said: “Treat has been a great shop window to show off our incredibly talented students and staff as well as create links with local Edinburgh businesses, restaurants and cafés. We would like to thank everyone who came along to support this event and for the great total that we raised for St Columba’s Hospice”.

The treat food festival will be taking place again in 2015.