The change in status of the meat industry charity, the BDCI, now means it has the opportunity to extend the objectives of the charity enabling it to offer assistance to a greater number of beneficiaries than previously, including educational initiatives.
The proposal is that BDCI will support two students a year with a bursary of £5,000 each towards the costs of college/university fees.
The terms of the bursary are currently being agreed, but broadly the concept is that applications will be invited from children or grandchildren of members of the trade and studies will be focused on the meat industry.
Applicants will have to demonstrate their merit for the award to the charity and successful beneficiaries will be awarded £5,000 per year, for three or four years of study. The amount represents just over fifty per cent of current college fees. As this will be an annual competition, once fully operational, it will increase charitable expenditure by £30,000 per year.
BDCI honorary treasurer, Ted Hoefling, said: “Changing the status of the charity association is a lengthy, detailed, process which has already taken many months. That’s because it’s more than just a change of status; it is the formation of a completely new entity, involving a transfer of the assets and liabilities of the old organisation, formed in 1828, to the new company."
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.