National KP Day: Winterhalter donates £500 to Springboard

Kitchen brigades across the country join in the photo fun, tweeting to raise money for charity

The first National KP Day saw lots of chefs and their brigades getting involved in celebrating the work of the kitchen porter – and raising money for charity.

June 22 was the day and Winterhalter, the warewashing specialist, offered to donate £1 to catering industry charity Springboard for every picture of a KP tweeted with the hashtag #kpday.

The Grand Hotel Eastbourne were amongst those who had a lot of fun with the event, posting photos including one of a teddy bear in goggles about to get showered in their pass through warewasher!

A selection of the pictures can be seen at www.kpoftheyear.com and on Facebook.

On July 2 Stephen Kinkead, Managing Director of Winterhalter, presented a cheque for £500 to Anne Pierce MBE, Chief Executive of the Springboard Charity.

“We are delighted to be working with Winterhalter on National KP Day and KP of Year,” says Anne Pierce. “It’s a brilliant way to raise the profile and showcase the vital contribution that KPs make and the many skills that they use within their roles. The photos also proved that the industry is populated by many Kitchen Porter’s with outstanding personalities‎.

“As the beneficiary charity for this excellent initiative, the funds raised will go towards our activities encouraging more people into the industry by the kitchen porter route.”

Stephen Kinkead says: “Having set up the KP of the Year Awards, and seen the fantastic reaction they get from the industry, we thought National KP Day would be a good idea.  The chefs and their brigades certainly rose to the occasion!  They grabbed the chance to have a bit of fun, raise some much needed cash for a very worthy charity, and to keep up the work of raising the profile of hardworking KPs everywhere.”

There’s still time to enter the KP of the Year Awards, which this year feature over £10,000-worth of prizes.  To nominate your KP, visit www.kpoftheyear.com

Springboard is the charity that helps young people, unemployed and those facing barriers to work into sustainable employment within the hospitality industry.  For more information visit http://springboard.uk.net