Food For London Now: The Felix Project quadruples supplies to the vulnerable with 100,000 meals a day

Mark Curtin, the CEO of the The Felix Project, pictured at its north London depot
Daniel Hambury

The Felix Project, our Food For London Now appeal partner, has quadrupled its supply of food to vulnerable Londoners to 42 tonnes — the equivalent of 100,000 meals a day. In the four weeks since lockdown, they have delivered 565 tonnes — a staggering 1.35 million meals.

This extraordinary humanitarian effort — carried out with 22 delivery vans manned by a small army of volunteers — comes in the wake of rising food poverty and worrying new research on unemployment.

The Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex estimated at the weekend that at least 6.5 million jobs could be lost, a fifth of the national total, with the duration of the lockdown being critical as to whether job losses will be short-lived.

It comes on top of a YouGov poll for The Food Foundation revealing that eight million people in Britain face food insecurity and that three million have already experienced hunger.

As Felix scrambles to respond to the deepening distress with no government support, donations are crucial to fund their fast-expanding operation.

Today we can report a hugely generous donation from the Garfield Weston Foundation, who agreed an emergency grant of £500,000 to be shared equally between The Felix Project and FareShare, London’s two biggest food surplus distributors, for their work supporting the most vulnerable families in the wake of the coronavirus.

Philippa Charles, director of the Garfield Weston Foundation, said: “Alongside significant grants to the National Emergency Trust among others, our trustees are keen to ensure that those most vulnerable and affected by this crisis receive the immediate support they need.

“We are delighted to support this partnership between two effective charities with which we have had long-standing relationships.”

Another donor to our appeal, which is approaching £2 million and is being run in association with The Independent, was the Oso Foundation, whose trustee Karen Jankel said: “Doing the weekly grocery shop may have its challenges for most of us, but at least we can afford to put food on the table.

“The ethos behind The Felix Project appeals to us as we hate the idea of waste and so by giving them our donation, we feel as though we’re making a small difference twice over.”

On Friday, Felix delivered 16 truckloads of nutritious food to community hubs in eight boroughs — Barnet, Enfield, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Islington, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest — and a further 26 truckloads to 75 charities, schools and holiday clubs.

All in all, this is the daily equivalent tonnage of three-and-a-half double-decker Routemaster buses.

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With more borough hubs set to come on stream in the coming days, demand for their services is set to rise yet further.

Our campaign in a nutshell

WHAT ARE WE DOING? We have launched Food For London Now, an appeal to fund the delivery of food to poor, elderly and vulnerable Londoners who are unable to afford food or are confined to home and at high risk of losing their lives from catching the coronavirus. Monies raised go to our appeal partner, The Felix Project, London’s biggest food surplus distributor, which is part of a co-ordinated food distribution effort taking place across London. The appeal is under the auspices of the Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund and run by the London Community Foundation, which manages the Fund.

HOW DOES THE SCHEME WORK? The London Food Alliance has been set up by the Felix Project together with the capital’s two other largest food surplus distributors — FareShare and City Harvest — to pick up nutritious surplus food from suppliers and deliver it in bulk to community hubs in each borough.

HOW WILL FOOD GET TO PEOPLE? Each borough will create hubs to receive the surplus food, divide it into food parcels and deliver them to the doorstep of vulnerable Londoners.

WHO WILL GET FOOD? Boroughs are in touch with local charities, foodbanks and community centres as well as the government to ascertain who is most vulnerable and in need.

HOW HAVE THE FOOD REDISTRIBUTORS DIVIDED UP LONDON? Felix is responsible for co-ordinating surplus supply across 14 boroughs, FareShare 12 and City Harvest 7.

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