Successful Good Food For All 'Feastival’ Event Inspires People To Eat Well

The first ‘Good Food For All Feastival’ event in Chichester city centre was a roaring success, with some fantastic dishes to inspire people and giving people plenty of food for thought about how we can eat better.

The event was organised by Chichester District using money it secured from the UK Government, in partnership with the Goodwood Estate and local charity, UKHarvest, which aims to increase access to good quality and nutritious food and reduce food waste.

The day featured several cooking demonstrations by Goodwood chefs Mike Watts and Harry Cartwright.

They cooked up several nourishing recipes from UKHarvest, showing people how to use up ingredients that are often overlooked or left to go to waste in the kitchen cupboard.

The mouthwatering menu included aubergine curry and rice; store cupboard fish cakes; chilli stuffed pumpkin and rice; and re-purpose cheesy veggie stale bread pudding. 

The idea was to show some quick and easy family ‘dinner winners’ that are also healthy and can be cooked by households on any budget.

In between the demos there was a series of talks and question and answer sessions hosted UKHarvest, covering issues such as food waste recycling; the impact of charities on helping reduce food waste and ensuring people have access to healthy and cheap food, while Chichester and Arun Food Partnership discussed future plans for food support.

Goodwood’s Estate Managing Director, Lloyd McNeill also gave a talk about why sustainable and organic farming is so important.

The final demonstration of the day featured celebrity chef Jameson Stocks, a district resident who also runs Just Street Food at ‘The Ghost at The Feast’ in North Street, Chichester.

His aim was to show people a slightly higher budget dish and chose to cook smoked pork belly with Selsey lobster, served with white beans. 

As well as enjoying the demos and talks, thousands of people could also chow down on delicious food from a variety of street food vendors and buy products from a number of our local producers.

To round the day off, guitar and singing duo ‘Charlotte and Chris’ performed a range of feel-good covers for people of all ages.

“For our first event of this kind it was a hugely successful day and brought such a positive and energetic buzz to the city centre - the combination of beautiful sunshine and a busy Saturday ahead of Mother’s Day made for a fantastic atmosphere,” says Councillor Adrian Moss, Leader of Chichester District Council.

“I know the local producers and traders that attended did very well from the day, and everyone was very engaged with the demonstrations and the fantastic recipe ideas from UKHarvest – people certainly enjoyed the free tasters at the end of the cooking sessions!

"We hope people were inspired by the event and learnt some useful tips and ideas to take back home to use in their own kitchens."

“Our ‘feastival’ is a further example of how Chichester District Council is fulfilling its events strategy by bringing another free event to the district, and catering for different audiences to help support our local economy and communities."