Tickle your taste buds and help save lives at RNLI Food and Drink Festival
Tickle your taste buds and help save lives at RNLI Food and Drink Festival
Lifeboats News Release
The RNLI’s annual Mayday Food Festival returns to the charity’s training college in Poole on Sunday 20 May. For the third year running, the lifesaving charity will welcome visitors to the RNLI College with a wide selection of local and artisan delights, delicious samples and live music.
The foodie festivities take place to support a month of fundraising when the RNLI hopes to raise £750,000 through the Mayday campaign. All money raised will be used to fund essential kit for the charity’s selfless volunteer lifeboat crews. Last year, lifeboats in the south launched 3,613 times, assisting 3,253 people.
Visitors to the event will be able to sample delicacies from artisan producers including Olives Et Al, From Dorset with Love, Le Petit Prince Patisserie, Brewhouse and Flaming Peaches. The family-friendly event will also feature live music, face painting and a raffle in aid of the Mayday campaign, all with free entry.
Stephen Bennett, Sales & Events Coordinator at the RNLI College, says: ‘We’re really looking forward to welcoming our visitors to what has become a hugely popular annual event. The array of local suppliers we’ll be hosting this year is second to none – there really is something for everyone.
‘We’d urge anyone with a passion for food to come along and help celebrate the very best that Dorset has to offer – and of course to help us raise funds to ensure our volunteers can be given the best kit to bring them home safely after every rescue.’
Mayday, the RNLI’s annual national fundraising campaign, runs for the whole month of May across the UK and Ireland.
Money raised through Mayday will help RNLI lifeboat crews to face the harshest conditions at sea with the best kit possible. It currently costs £1,598 to provide one all-weather lifeboat crew member with all of the kit they need when responding to the call for help.
Anyone who wishes to get involved can visit
RNLI.org/mayday to register for a free Mayday fundraising pack or donate to the campaign online. You can also show support on social media, joining the conversation using the hashtag #MaydayEveryDay, or buy a yellow crew member pin badge.
The RNLI College Food and Drink Festival 2018 takes place at the RNLI College, West Quay Road, from 11am – 4pm on Sunday 20 May. Entry is free for all visitors, with limited free parking also available. More information can be found at RNLI.org/college
Key facts about the RNLI
The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 146,000 lives.
