A top local restaurant has found a unique and tasty way to support the fund raising efforts of a student who is hoping to take a once in a lifetime expedition back to the home country of many of its recipes.

Modern Indian eatery Jai Ho, of Ocean Road, South Shields, will create a very special dish to help young Laura Crutwell raise the minimum finance required to allow her to travel to Southern India in 2011 on a World Challenge school expedition. Laura, 14, a student at St Wilfrid’s Roman Catholic School, is determined to participate in the exciting journey to the beautiful state of Kerala and has taken on the daunting challenge of raising £3,500 to secure her place. If she is successful, she will not only benefit personally from the memorable sights and unique experiences this region offers, but will work to help local communities. In the past, students have trekked to various locations to help build classrooms and play areas for disadvantaged children, and next year’s project will also involve helping the local community. Current ideas for the 2011 World Challenge team include visiting local schools and participating in various initiatives which will improve the quality of life for many villagers, such as creating new toilet facilities or digging wells to improve the water supply.

A casual chat with Laura’s family as they dined in his restaurant alerted owner Khamal Hussain to their daughter’s project. Immediately the idea of having a specially created new dish on the restaurant menu was raised. He said;

“Laura’s family told me about her aim to travel to Southern India as part of this worthy expedition, and the various fundraising ideas they were considering. We soon began discussing the idea of a dish dedicated to, and named after, the region she would visit. Indian food varies greatly with the different districts so we talked about the distinctive recipes that she might encounter and how we could offer a taste of these to customers as a fitting way to help boost her travel fund. The family were thrilled that we could do this, and we are more than happy to help out in this way”.

The chefs are now working to create the perfect dish, and they have many options open to them. The cuisine of Kerala and its neighbouring states is particularly diverse, with many of the region’s people embracing vegetarianism, whilst seafood is popular among other communities, particularly those near the coast. The predominant native flavours are often coconut, dried red and fresh green chillis, combined with the most available local produce such as tamarind, garlic and ginger. The plan is for the final dish to cost customers £12.00, with £2.00 from every purchase going straight to Laura’s fund. To help sales along, it will be made available to diners in the restaurant as well as those placing orders for a take away. Khamal is optimistic that customers will embrace the new recipe.

Khamal Hussain – owner of the restaurant said:  “We are sure that this special creation will be a big hit, helped by the fact that it has such a great story behind it, and hope that within a few weeks, we will have helped Laura make a big dent in her challenge fund. We will be following her progress closely and look forward to hearing all about her trip next year- she is a very determined young lady who seems undaunted by the challenge of raising this significant amount of money. We’re sure she will get there”.

Lynn Watson, the school leader behind the expedition, is pleased with the students’ progress, and is happy that Jai Ho is able to help. “Laura is extremely keen and enthusiastic about what the expedition will entail, and is pulling out all the stops to ensure she achieves her goal. As she has a great singing voice, Laura has gone out independently and produced a CD to sell among family, friends and acquaintances.  This shows her determination to raise the required funds for the trip. I am delighted that Jai Ho has been able to get involved to further boost her funds, and it is a wonderful and kind offer by Khamal and his staff to create a dish to support Laura’s efforts”.

Laura added;

“When my mum told me that Khamal and his team were willing to create a new dish for customers in their restaurant to help me raise money for my Indian expedition, I was absolutely delighted. This is a fantastic gesture and I am very grateful for their help”.

The dish is due to go on sale from March the 1st, and customers new and old are urged to come and try it.