Food for London: The Felix Project food boxes help so many families, says young carer

A teenage carer who has looked after his disabled mother and his siblings in the pandemic is one of thousands of young people receiving free nutritious meals over the half-term from our appeal partner, The Felix Project.

Standing in the hall of the Concorde Youth Centre in Hackney, Devarne, an 18-year-old aspiring footballer, said the food delivered by Felix “has really helped us, but not just us”.

As the eldest of three siblings, he was given the responsibility of shopping and getting food for his family in the Covid crisis while his mother, Emelia Jackson, who suffers from a brain tumour and a heart condition, stayed home with her other children.

Devarne said: “I’ve also been taking part in delivering food to other vulnerable family members through our youth centre, so I know how helpful these packages have been to other families and their children. They bring us healthy food with vegetables and all sorts of things and when my little sister sees me come in with the boxes, she gets so excited.”

The Felix Project, which delivers surplus food to the vulnerable, has served over 13.5 million lockdown meals with the support of our Food For London Now campaign. Funds donated via our appeal have helped it quadruple capacity and deliver about two million meals a month.

This week Felix is working with more than 80 school holiday programmes and organisations including the Concorde, Hackney Marsh Adventure playground and Chefs in Schools to provide 25,000 free meals to children.

Ms Jackson, 37, a former carer, said: “I think the Government refusing the [free meal] voucher is disgusting — when they were giving out the vouchers before, it was really helpful for the children.” Anna Taylor, executive director of the Food Foundation, said the Government needed to put in place a credible long-term plan on food poverty, and should implement the recommendations in its National Food Strategy.

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