Yahoo News Almost £1m rolls in as food supplies roll out to London
More than 40 food distribution hubs have been established in 31 boroughs as the extraordinary humanitarian effort to get food to more than 150,000 vulnerable Londoners gets under way.
The hubs are being supplied daily with truck-loads of fresh produce by the capital’s three largest surplus food distribution charities, including The Felix Project, the Evening Standard’s Food For London Now campaign partner, alongside FareShare and City Harvest.
The hubs include the Sobell Leisure Centre in Islington, a museum in Barnet, and the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in Haringey.
As donations to our appeal for The Felix Project rose to £920,000, including £38,000 from more than 500 members of the public, a fleet of 22 bright green Felix vans began ferrying 20 tonnes of food to three of the community hubs — Barnet, Haringey and Enfield — as well as 61 charities and schools across London.
Among them was Food For All in Holborn where, in an impressive culinary feat, 2,000 portions of vegan curry were cooked in a giant aluminium pot, large enough for five adults to stand in, and delivered to the Spurs Stadium and homeless shelters in King’s Cross, Camden and Kentish Town.
The charity’s founder, Peter O’Grady, 56, said the pot was the “biggest in the western world” and that he had bought it at a factory in Agra next to the Taj Mahal. “You can put five of us in it and sail down the Thames,” he laughed.
The massive operation starts at 4.30am every morning when kitchen manager Sofia, 37, turns on the gas hobs.
“We have a team of volunteers who have peeled and chopped 200 kilos of potatoes and 100 kilos of carrots the night before and they get added in first,” she said.
Mr O’Grady arrives between 6am and 7am and starts to work his magic, adding dahl, a wheelie bin of cabbage and another of cauliflower and spinach. Finally he throws in tomatoes, turmeric, ginger and cumin.
By 9am it is ready to serve and so begins the massive operation of decanting the piping hot contents into 2,000 Tupperware-size portions and shipping them out.
“I have been doing this mass cooking since 1989,” said Mr O’Grady. “I have cooked for Glastonbury and Extinction Rebellion and now I am doing it in response to Covid-19.
“The food comes from The Felix Project and FareShare and the ingredients we use are carefully chosen to boost your immune system — it’s probably the healthiest meal you could eat.”
As he finished cooking, a Felix van drove up with another 350 kilograms of fresh fruit and vegetables, and another unloaded four tonnes of food at the Barnet hub.
A Barnet council spokesman said their hub was gearing up to support 4,000 vulnerable residents, one per cent of the borough’s population. “We will also support anyone who requests urgent help and those put forward for help by family, friends, neighbours, or community groups,” he said.
Dan Thomas, the leader of Barnet council, called for volunteers to help the effort. He said: “If you’re in a fortunate position, I ask you to volunteer to help those less fortunate. Together, we will get through this.”
Donations yesterday included £10,000 from The Lehman Brothers Foundation Europe.
Chairman Peter Sherratt said: “We are starting to scale up our assistance to vulnerable children and are thrilled to support the Food For London Now appeal and The Felix Project.”
If you are in need of food, please go to your borough’s website to get on their list and food will be delivered to your doorstep.
Our appeal 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.
