Kids Company Christmas: the feeding of the 3,500

Camila Batmanghelidjh’s charity is pulling out the stops to create a Christmas lunch for thousands of children
P30 Camila Batmanghelidjh Pic;NIGEL HOWARD

From wrapping up presents to rescuing the burning roast potatoes and dealing with bickering relatives, Christmas can be trying. But just imagine doing lunch for 7,500.

This is the challenge faced by Camila Batmanghelidjh, who is expecting to host a sit-down lunch for 3,500 children at the Kids Company Christmas party, and send out food parcels and gifts to a further 4,000. These are vulnerable children who would otherwise be alone or in danger on Christmas Day.

Batmanghelidjh started the Kids Company Christmas in 1996, having noticed suicide attempts by children go up in December. “The fact that children were seeing other people decorating their houses and having a nice time together while they were left alone was horrible,” she says. “I saw a lot of gut-wrenching crying. The whole world was working towards the day when these kids were going to be devastated.”

She remembers one girl who was so afraid to leave her room on Christmas Day that she lifted the carpet and peed on the floorboards rather than risk seeing her mum on drugs.

The Kids Company Christmas Day starts at 7am with all the volunteers arriving at a mystery location that can sit such a large number. “It’s a military operation,” says Batmanghelidjh. She arranges transport for children, frantically looking for Muslim taxi drivers who won’t be celebrating Christmas and can drive the children to the site — which is top secret to avoid unwanted guests turning up.

Batmanghelidjh says she has to warn the volunteers. “If you’re expecting a cosy Christmas, it’s not this. I usually tell them it’s a cross between Haiti when they were handing out aid after the hurricane and Noah’s Ark for its queues. Kids don’t want to be with us. It’s humiliating to spend your Christmas with a charity. They want to be in their family homes and just by being there they’re summoning up an enormous amount of courage.”

With the children’s ages ranging from babies to age 20, at the end of the day there’s “tantrum management”. “Like all Christmas parties, even with your family, it ends with everyone exhausted and bleary-eyed. There’s always a group of kids who don’t want to go home.”

Batmanghelidjh arranges dinner for anyone who doesn’t want to be alone afterwards. “Then I go home and crash.” Kids Co’s phone numbers are open in the period between Christmas and New Year so that no child ever feels alone.

There are 250 volunteers at the lunch. “They’re amazing. Julia Peyton-Jones, co-director of the Serpentine Gallery, is usually invited to every A-class party but on Christmas Day she’s at our lunch serving behind a counter. And believe me, she sees it all. I have to go check she’s not traumatised beyond belief.” Actress Sheila Hancock comes to read to the children, and one year Rowan Atkinson turned up, as Mr Bean.

Giving up your own family Christmas to be with the kids can be a tough choice, says Batmanghelidjh. “I have to leave my 80-year-old mother. She’s full of spirit and with it but it is a difficult choice to leave her.

“I try to go and see her first thing in the morning and then I go again on Boxing Day. But the kids rely on us.”

Food is the most important part. “The number one reason for children referring themselves to us is food and the biggest fear on Christmas Day is that we’ll run out. There are children who literally don’t know when they are going to eat. At least 18 per cent have never had a pair of pants.”

“The day is traumatic because you see how desperate people are,” says Batmanghelidjh. “There is a lot of shrieking from the kids, and glitter and wrapping paper everywhere.”

All guests are encouraged to dress up. Former Kids Company child Lola Rose, 20, who is now a student, remembers being given a big red bow to wear in her hair at her first Kids Co Christmas. “I got jazzed up and felt special. It’s happy — not like seeing my mum crying with a bottle of vodka by the end of the day.”

Although lots of food is donated, with presents and transport the whole day costs around £100,000. But Batmanghelidjh doesn’t want that to put people off. “It sounds like a lot of money that we could never raise but that’s what it is and we must do it.”

HOW TO FEED THE 3,500: INGREDIENTS FOR THE KIDS COMPANY'S CHRISTMAS LUNCH

400 Christmas puddings
2,000 mince pies
7,000 roast potatoes
437 turkeys
14,000 Brussels sprouts
250 volunteers
3,500 children
2 days to decorate the venue
48 hours to cook everything
1 year of fundraising
2 months of preparation
11,000 presents
300 winter coats given to children
3,000 taxi journeys on Christmas Day

HOW TO HELP

You can help by joining the “Make-a-Christmas TO REMEMBER” campaign on Facebook. Click on a Christmas-related object and donate it to the party.
kidscompany/facebookappeal

Give a present from the Kids Co Wish List. Go to johnlewisgiftlist.com, click on “buy a gift” and enter the gift list number 525473 to choose what to give the children. Or call the gift line on 0845 600 2202.

Text KIDS HELP to 70700 to make a £5 donation. To volunteer before Christmas, email sharon.lees@kidsco.org.uk

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