Country Food Trust asks shoots for birds as 10th-year dinner nears

The Country Food Trust is appealing to shoots across the country to donate birds this season, as it prepares to mark ten years of turning game into meals for people in need at its Scottish fundraising dinner in Edinburgh on Wednesday, 28 October 2026. The charity’s anniversary silent auction is already live, with bidding open until 11pm on the night of the dinner.

“Where are your birds going this season? Could they be used to help feed people in need?” the Trust asks in its October appeal, inviting any shoot that would like to be involved to get in touch.

What is under the hammer?

Seven live lots will be auctioned at the dinner. They include a day’s shooting at Longformacus in the Borders for three or four Guns; a day for two Guns at Primrosehill on 20 November, with dinner, bed and breakfast at the Black Bull Hotel in Duns; a Glenalmond clay day for eight Guns on 5 July 2027; and four nights’ self-catering for ten guests at the Boathouse on Tweed, with three days’ salmon fishing. Away from the field there are two bottles of 1917 vintage port, bottled by D. McRobbie of Galashiels, and a hand-cut watercolour by Rachel Shaw Ashton, with one further lot to be confirmed. The silent auction ranges from clothing and art to shooting, stalking and wine-tasting experiences.

Why do the birds matter?

The Trust exists to turn the season’s surplus into food. Donated game becomes high-protein, additive-free meals – among them free-range pheasant casserole and curry and wild venison bolognese – produced with a one-year shelf life and given free to foodbanks and community kitchens across the UK. The charity delivered its first 2,000 pouches to Bristol in 2015 and passed one million meals in 2020, a year ahead of its own target, with raw game also distributed to community kitchens that cook at scale.

The dinner continues a fundraising run that began with the Trust’s inaugural Scottish dinner in Edinburgh in 2023, and is followed on 29 October by an evening with television presenter and Trust patron Phil Spencer at Barnsgrove.

What happens next?

The silent auction closes at 11pm on Wednesday, 28 October, and bids can be placed online now; anyone wanting to bid on the live lots ahead of the dinner can email sj@thecountryfoodtrust.org by 5pm on Tuesday, 27 October. Shoots with birds to donate this season can contact the Trust through its website, and fundraisers planning events for the charity are asked to get in touch so they can be promoted.