Fund to support Fifteen Cornwall staff raises £5,000 [Updated]
The project closed for donations on 18 December after four days, with 138 supporters pledging money to the cause.
It was started following the sudden closure of Jamie Oliver’s social enterprise restaurant in Cornwall’s Watergate Bay after almost 14 years of trading. Around 100 staff at the restaurant lost their jobs.
Writing on the fundraising page, the group that started the project said: "Cornwall. Thank you. You've outdone yourselves yet again on supporting each other. As many of you will know the funds raised from this campaign will go to the Cornwall Community Foundation who have also been raising funds - and they will be distributing the funds to the people affected by this shocking and sad situation."
The money will be shared between Fifteen staff ahead of Christmas.
Fifteen Cornwall was the second social enterprise venture from the celebrity chef after the debut Fifteen, which opened in London in 2002 but shut in May this year. The business trained unemployed people to work as chefs in its kitchen, giving jobs and careers to hundreds of people in the process.
The restaurant had initially survived the collapse of Oliver’s wider Jamie's Italian business earlier this year because it is run separately by the Cornwall Food Foundation charitable trust. It was one of the last remnants of Oliver’s UK restaurant empire, with the chef’s name now only existing in the UK as part of the portfolio of restaurants and cafes in airports that are now operated by SSP.
