Yahoo News Evening Standard comment: Our campaign is helping to feed London’s hungry | Testing times as we wait | The piano man plays on
Thank you, London. Just days after the Evening Standard helped launch the Food For London Now appeal our campaign has already received more than £550,000 in support.
As a result, teams are already in action, getting meals to those who need them most. In a little more than 72 hours, our city has risen to the challenge. It’s part of a major new cross-city plan to bring councils, charities and businesses together to make sure no one has to go hungry in our capital.
Lockdown is tough for those with secure jobs, warm homes and close families.
Imagine what it is like if you are living rough, or are elderly and/or unable to leave the place where you live because you are at a particularly high risk of losing your life to coronavirus.
For the homeless, empty streets make it harder than ever to get food. Travel restrictions make it difficult for all of us to visit those in need. There are reports of people not being able to eat.
The Food For London Now appeal was launched with a £350,000 grant from the Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund and has already raised £200,000 more from business and foundations, including £14,000 generously donated by members of the public through our virginmoneygiving.com page.
It’s been backed on Twitter by celebrities including Emma Watson, Rob Brydon and Rita Ora.
All the money raised goes to The Felix Project, the biggest distributor of surplus food from supermarkets, shops and restaurants. It is joining forces with the capital’s two other largest distributors — FareShare and City Harvest — to create a supply network that covers every part of London.
Hubs will be set up in each London borough where surplus food will be put into food parcels, ready to go out to those who need it.
The next few weeks are going to be hard for everyone and will, sadly, bring many stories of loss and distress.
The right response is to stand together to overcome it — and, at the Evening Standard, we are proud to play a part by backing Food For London.
It’s a brilliant start and we hope that it’s going to keep on growing. We thank everyone for their generosity so far and ask for more support for this important cause.
Donate at virginmoneygiving.com/fund/FoodforLondonNOW
Testing times as we wait
The number of people being tested each day for coronavirus is growing fast. But it needs to grow faster still. Everyone agrees with that, including ministers.
The NHS needs medical professionals on the front line, not self-isolating at home and unable to find out if they have been infected.
So it’s no surprise that people are looking enviously at Germany, which has tested four or five people for every one who has had a test in Britain. Why can’t that happen here?
First, ramping up production of test kits isn’t easy. As Simon Clarke, a professor of microbiology at the University of Reading, explains for the Evening Standard today, there is a risk of ordering large numbers of test kits that aren’t reliable.
That’s happened in Spain. Germany, which makes many of the tests, had a head start.
Second, there’s still a lot that’s not known about the disease. Tests for antibodies could soon show if people have suffered from coronavirus — but we don’t yet know if they can become reinfected.
Explaining uncertainties and difficulties such as these is a challenge.
Governments want to talk about success. But the right advice for ministers is to be open about the challenge, even when testing is falling short of what we all want.
The piano man plays on
In lockdown without his piano, Elton John still took part in a live online concert last night along with other stars.
From virtual classical concerts to singalongs, the music won’t stop just because we can’t get together to perform it.
Piano man, play on.
