Rural community spaces, nature restoration, heritage conservation, and education have been at the heart of the Foundation since its founding in 2001, by Claydon Estate’s former steward Sir Edmund Verney.

Now chaired by Sir Edmund’s son and successor Nicholas Verney, the Foundation’s mission and values remain philanthropic and focused on making real positive change for local people and places.

Growth

“Founded as The Sir Ralph Verney Memorial Fund, in memory of my grandfather Sir Ralph Verney, the founding of the Fund offered a means of furthering the Estate’s charitable reach, while paying homage to my grandfather’s decades of public service,” Nicholas explains.

“Primarily serving rural communities, it was well placed to do so with its connection to the rural landscape and understanding of the challenges faced by those living and working in the countryside.”

Chaired by Sir Edmund and an independent representative, before growing to a board of four trustees, it went by its founding name for 22 years.

Then in 2023, The Sir Ralph Verney Memorial Fund became The Verney Foundation – representing the evolution of the Foundation and its longstanding commitment to people, place, and planet.

Nicholas joined the board of trustees in 2006 and eventually took up the mantle of Chair from his father, who now acts as a Trustee alongside Nicholas’ wife Alexandra, and an independent trustee.

Gifting

For two decades, the Foundation accumulated funds and regularly awarded grants to charities and causes, who applied for funding after hearing about the opportunity via word of mouth.

Over the years, grants have aided an array of charitable work, including helping to fund critical repairs to historic churches in The Claydons, a new classroom at East Claydon School and refurbishments at Steeple Claydon School.

The Foundation has also supported nature conservation projects with the Berks, Bucks, and Oxon Wildlife Trust, as well as with SongBird Survival, which funds research into the causes of the decline in songbirds.

The Country Trust – an educational charity which connects children from areas of high social and economic disadvantage with the land – has also been a very deserving beneficiary of funds from the Foundation.

Future

From helping charities that support rural communities achieve access to healthcare to those helping alleviate food poverty in urban towns, The Verney Foundation continues to evolve.

“In the last two years the Foundation has changed its structure so that we are able to give more grant funding to charities that are servicing the needs of communities today,” says Nicholas.

“We have a deep interest in helping communities local to the Claydon Estate, and further afield across Buckinghamshire, to thrive well into the future.”

Case Study: Support for Molly’s Café, Steeple Claydon to introduce Bags of Taste

Molly’s Community Café is helping local people eat well and live better with the help of funding awarded by The Verney Foundation.

Claydon Estate’s Nicholas Verney encouraged Paul Firth, the director of Molly’s Community Cafe in Steeple Claydon, to apply for a grant from The Verney Foundation when he heard of Paul’s latest ambition to make meaningful change in local communities around north Buckinghamshire.

And now a £6,000 grant award has helped the café bring Bags of Taste to the Steeple Claydon community.

Bags of Taste

Paul was listening to Radio 4’s Your and Yours Gap Finder segment in late April (2025) when he heard Alicia Weston, founder of the charity Bags of Taste, describe how its mentored home cooking programme is helping to tackle food poverty and health inequality.

Paul learned that the programme’s two-week cookery course makes cooking easy and affordable with free ingredients – enough for seven tasty, nutritious, low-cost meals – and participants are supported by a personal mentor, over WhatsApp or the phone.  The course includes printed guides on healthy eating for kids and lots of tips to save money and time. He heard how flexible the course is, with participants cooking at home in their own time, with community partners helping with sign-ups, funding, and deliveries.

“I thought it was a brilliant initiative,” says Paul, who founded Molly’s Community Café in 2019 to bring people together and continue the legacy of the late Molly Lewis, a beloved and active member of the Steeple Claydon community.

Despite there being wealth in the area, Paul stresses that there is also a considerable number of people living at some level of deprivation or disadvantage – leaving them with very little access or choice to what they eat.

“I could really see how it could help people in the local and wider area, so I wanted to see if we could make it fly in north Buckinghamshire.”

The Verney Foundation

With Bags of Taste looking for community partners, Paul believed the café was a perfect fit.

He soon had the café approved and his next challenge was to find and fund 60 participants. And it was his earlier conversations with Nicholas about The Verney Foundation which offered an apt funding opportunity.

“Bags of Taste is free to those signing up, but there are running costs which equate to about £100 per person, and we need to raise the money to cover that,” says Paul.

“The Foundation looked at our application so favourably that it granted us the full £6,000 we asked for – which would cover 60 places on the course – I’m still overjoyed about it.”

Molly’s Community Café

Paul and the team at Molly’s Community Café are working hard to do all they can to make Bags of Taste a success in the area – from signing people up and shopping for ingredients to packing up food bags and delivering them to the door.

It’s early days but since launching the programme at the cafe in early July, eight people have signed up to make a change to the way they eat and feel about food.

Poignantly, those who have signed up are a mixed group of people and circumstance – from an older person who is a widower and wants to learn how to cook for themself to a single parent with their hands full and on a low income.

“Everyone will have their reasons why they have a difficult relationship with food or aren’t cooking or eating well – and that’s not for any of us to judge,” Paul adds. “This programme helps them break through into a nutritious and affordable world of food.”

Ambition

Paul wants the Bags of Taste programme to reach more people and has great ambitions – from getting to 60 sign-ups in six months to helping families and communities further afield.

“We’re talking about Bags of Taste with community leaders in the surrounding area and there are people who are really keen to fly the flag.”

The Verney Foundation’s grant award to Molly’s Community Café means that this programme is off to a flying start and Paul hopes that this is just the start of a long term commitment to improve people’s lives and ensure that Molly’s café continues to achieve its aim to support the community it serves.

Paul and young volunteer, Alice, preparing the first batch of bags to be delivered to the initial sing-ups on the north Bucks Bags of Taste programme