November 2021 saw The JEllie Foundation’s first fundraising event - Signature Food Festival.
However, the highly successful gourmet event which takes place over a fortnight in November, has a track record of raising significant sums for local charities through The Chester Hotel.
2014
The Chester Hotel Autumn Ball in the hotel’s opening year raised £1,100 and this was the first charitable event which the hotel supported.
2017
The goal for Signature 2017 was to raise enough money to purchase one giraffe incubator and ventilator for babies who are born early or poorly.
Signature 2017 more than doubled this target and presented the Neo Natal Unit at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary with £105k – enough to buy two giraffe incubators.
Read our spotlight story on this significant Signature donation.
2018
2018 proved to be a runaway success for Signature 2018. Scotland’s only fine dining festival, raised more than a quarter of a million pounds for charity; more than doubling the amount raised at the 2017 event.
A total of £239,000 was donated to the Friends of the Neo Natal Unit at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and £12,000 was also raised for Friendly Access a charity which supports those living with hidden disabilities.
2019
Generous foodies who descended on Signature 2019, helped ensure that critically ill babies in the city’s neonatal unit continued to have access to some of the best medical care in the country.
Diners’ donations of £156k, covered the costs of a high-level training course for nurses at Aberdeen Maternity Hospital. In addition, the funds raised paid for two ventilators and an ultrasound scanner for the unit, which is for premature and seriously ill babies.
A further £29,000 was donated to The Parkinson’s Cure Trust to support the fund-raising efforts of guest chef Martin Wishart.
2021 – Signature in aid of The JEllie Foundation
The 2021 Signature Food Festival was the first fundraising event run by The JEllie Foundation and Signature diners raised another staggering sum for good causes.
A total of £303,000 was generously donated by those attending nights of food by Marco Pierre White, Glyn Purnell, Phil Howard, Richard Corrigan, Martin Wishart and Atul Kochhar.
£180,000 of this was committed by The JEllie Foundation to The Archie Foundation and you can read the spotlight stories on how this funding is supporting additions to complement Video Telemetry (VTEM) Equipment and a planned donation towards a neonatal transport trolly.
This is a state of the art neonatal transport trolley to replace aging equipment which currently transports the most poorly babies between Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Aberdeen Maternity hospital and Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital. Funding from The JEllie Foundation will provide nitric oxide delivery system which is required for the very sickest babies and phototherapy which, while only required occasionally, is vital for the babies who require it. Phototherapy treats jaundice which is vital as high jaundice levels can cause brain damage).
The 2021 event also donated to The Archie Foundation to fund the RACH Paediatric Pain Clinical Specialist Nurse position for its final 6 months due to a funding shortage.
Further announcements on projects funded from the 2021 JEllie Foundation Signature event will be made in the coming months.
2022
Find out more about the 2022 Signature Food Festival and see our amazing line up for chefs who’ll be cooking up a storm for our good causes this year.