CHAGFORD chef Michael Caines has agreed to become a vice-president of the children's charity Farms for City Children.

The acclaimed chef, with two Michelin stars, is executive chef at Gidleigh Park, and an operational partner and director of hotels and restaurants around the country.

Helen Chaloner, chief executive of Farms for City Children, was delighted with the appointment to the charity which enriches the lives and develops the potential of children from cities and towns all over the country by giving them the opportunity to spend a week in the countryside on a working farm.

She said: Michael Caines is a wonderful ambassador for our charity and a great role model for the thousands of city children that come and spend a week on our farms each year. As someone who has excelled through dedication and hard work, he embodies our emphasis on purposeful work and getting a job done as part of a team. 

'Michael has championed the importance of using seasonal, local produce and this chimes with what the children learn on our farms about the sources of their food and about eating freshly prepared food, shared at the table, free from the distractions of television, computers or mobile phones.

Helen added: 'Gidleigh Park Hotel has regularly donated to our charity over a period of many years and Michael is now taking that support to another level.'

Other vice-presidents of Farms for City Children include celebrities such as Monty Don, Joanna Lumley and Daley Thomson.  The charity was founded at Iddlesleigh in 1976 by children's writer Michael Morpurgo and his wife, Clare. The Princess Royal is the charity's patron and the late poet laureate, Ted Hughes, was the founding president.