Kids Company founder Camila Batmanghelidjh 'set to open children's food bank in south London'

New venture: Kids Company founder Camila Batmanghelidjh
Alex Lentati
Sebastian Mann16 August 2015

Kids Company founder Camila Batmanghelidjh has plans to launch a food bank for up to 3,000 children and young people beneath a railway arch in south London, it has been reported.

Some 50 former staff of the now closed charity have volunteered to help run the Kids Dining Room, which will open in Lambeth on Wednesday, Ms Batmanghelidjh told the Sunday Times.

“Some people may want me to disappear, but there are a whole lot of others who saw Kids Company as a lifeline,” she said.

“Children have been ringing me up saying they are hungry, so we are trying to salvage something from the mess that Westminster created.”

She told the paper the kitchen would offer bags of vegetables and tinned food provided by a restaurant chain, with a view to securing a kitchen at some point in the future.

But Ms Batmanghelidjh said it would not be her preparing the meals.

"I am a dire cook. I’ve never turned on my oven," she said.

Kids Company ceased operations at the start of August after the government pulled an annual grant of £3m amid allegations of financial mismanagement at the charity.

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