Ava Sender Logan won the woman’s race in the annual Gloucestershire cheese rolling event. By Lynn Rusk, first published in the Evening Standard 5.5.25
The winning Double Gloucester was used by volunteers at Refugee Community Kitchen to prepare a meal (Lynn Rusk/PA)
The winner of an annual cheese rolling race in Gloucestershire has donated her prize to a food charity in London.
Ava Sender Logan, 20, who won the women’s race by tumbling down Cooper’s Hill in Brockworth last month, was racing for Refugee Community Kitchen, which supports displaced people in northern France and homeless people in London and Edinburgh.
The biochemistry student beat 25 other female contestants to win an 8lb (3kg) wheel of Double Gloucester, a semi-hard cheese renowned for its strong and savoury flavour.
Ava Sender Logan won the women’s race at the Gloucestershire cheese rolling event (Issac Tartaglia/PA)
Miss Sender Logan, who volunteers for Refugee Community Kitchen, said it was a “full circle moment” to see the winning cheese being used to help feed rough sleepers in north London.
Miss Sender Logan told the PA news agency: “It’s a full-circle moment. It’s really sweet. The cheese has travelled from Gloucestershire to Oxford to London to the kitchen.
“The cheese is delicious, so I’m really happy people can try it.”
Miss Sender Logan, who was a first-time competitor in the annual daredevil competition, said she was stunned when she won.
“I was trying to hold my head, stay on my feet as much as I could, but there’s only so much you can do,” she said.
“I was bruised, I was battered but there were no broken bones.”
Refugee Community Kitchen distributes hundreds of meals a week and has won a number of prestigious awards, including the Observer Food Monthly’s outstanding achievement award.
The charity, which was set up by four friends in 2015, has been serving “nutritious food without judgment” to those fleeing war, poverty, persecution and climate change for a decade.
Ava Sender Logan preparing her winning cheese at Refugee Community Kitchen in London (Sam Jones/PA)
Co-founder Sam Jones said: “It’s a really nice kind of full circle to have the cheese that rolled down the hill, the Double Gloucester that’s going into a cauliflower and broccoli cheese that’s going out to the street today.
“We’ve got about 85 to 90 people that will be scoffing that up in Archway in north London.
“It really fills us full of joy and satisfaction to be able to do that. We’re deeply indebted to Ava for putting her life and limbs on the line to get the cheese.”
Mr Jones said he hopes Miss Sender Logan’s support will help raise awareness of the work the charity does.
“We’ve served four and a half million meals in London and in Calais over the last 10 years, so we’re just really chuffed to have people on board to do this amazing fundraising and to raise awareness of our charity,” he said.
The Gloucestershire cheese-rolling race has been celebrated for centuries and is thought to have its roots in a heathen festival to celebrate the return of spring.
This year, there were seven races in all, two of them in memory of former cheese rolling winners who have since died.
You can donate to Miss Sender Logan’s fundraiser here.
