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Food For London Now: It’s the challenge of our lifetime — let’s unite to feed London

London today faces the greatest challenge of our collective lifetime. The city that weathered the Black Death, the Great Fire and the Blitz is shuttered, locked in battle with an invisible enemy. And vulnerable Londoners, old and young, need our help. London is the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak on the British Isles. We all know someone suffering from the virus, or we soon will. But the impact of the outbreak is more than simply clinical. Our schools are closed, our workplaces are empty and many people are unable to access essential supplies.

A complex epidemiological crisis has become a basic hunger crisis. This is why I am pleased to announce that the Evening Standard is launching an emergency appeal to ensure that food supplies reach vulnerable and elderly Londoners.

We will once again work with The Felix Project, which is setting up a city-wide logistical operation to direct food from suppliers to local hubs and people. I plan to go out in a van today myself, to help deliver the first food parcels and speak to the people on the front line of the Covid-19-induced hunger crisis.

Our Food For London campaign in 2016 sought to tackle the injustices of food poverty, in a city where food waste is rampant. We covered the scandal of hidden hunger in one of the richest cities in the world, and we ensured that schoolchildren received nutritious food to start the day.

But now even more ordinary Londoners find themselves in need. I am thinking of the pensioner whose family can no longer come to visit. The child who has lost his free school lunch. And the NHS doctor who comes off her shift only to be met by empty shelves. I am particularly keen that our appeal benefits London’s extraordinary health workers who are risking their lives to care for us. Like many of you, I was greatly moved by the applause that rang out across the country in their honour last night.

At a time when people are anxious, both for themselves and for those around them, we must work to tackle the spectre of food insecurity. This is good for people, but also for society as a whole — not least because it will slow the spread of the virus by allowing at-risk and infected individuals to effectively self-isolate.

Our ongoing commitment to supporting the homeless must also adapt to this new situation, in which those on the streets find themselves especially vulnerable. I am grateful for Prince William’s intervention on this matter and I entirely agree: no one should be sleeping rough at this time of national crisis.

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With this campaign for extraordinary times, the Standard will remind readers that many in London are hungry and afraid. It will urge individuals and companies to donate to allow good-quality food to reach the places it is most needed, from schools and hospitals to some of the poorest council estates. And it will support The Felix Project in expanding its reach, so that no Londoner need go hungry.

The Evening Standard is Britain’s foremost campaigning newspaper; we are immensely proud of this heritage. And this is our most urgent campaign to date, launched by an editorial team working under exceptionally difficult circumstances from their homes, while our offices lie empty. But we are certainly not working alone, and I am grateful for the endorsements of our campaign by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who have both displayed real leadership in this troubling time.

A journalist from our group, Shaun Lintern, remarked recently that it is precisely in a crisis that a journalist becomes most valuable to society. It is our responsibility to keep you informed, to debunk dangerous rumours spread on social media, and to hold institutions to account during this emergency. It is also what has allowed us to identify this urgent need for food supplies within sections of the population.

It is at these moments that we learn to see ourselves anew. If anything good is to come out of this disaster, let it be a more caring and open society, to follow the example set by the remarkable volunteers at The Felix Project.

I do not know what will happen next in this unprecedented moment for our city, and for the world. But I have been inspired by the quiet heroism of NHS staff, volunteers and low-paid workers. When the history books are written, it will be remembered that in the face of adversity, Londoners stood tall.

Donate at virginmoneygiving.com/fund/FoodforLondonNOW

How you can help

We have launched an appeal to fund the delivery of desperately needed food to poor, elderly and vulnerable Londoners who are unable to afford food or are confined to their homes and at high risk of losing their lives from catching the coronavirus.

Monies raised will go to our campaign partner, The Felix Project, London’s biggest food surplus distributor, who are part of a co-ordinated food distribution effort taking place across London.
The appeal will be under the auspices of the Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund and run by The London Community Foundation, which has managed the Fund since its launch 10 years ago.

How the scheme works

What is happening?

A new initiative called The London Food Alliance has been set up by the capital’s three largest food surplus distributors — The Felix Project, 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 carved up London?

The Felix Project is responsible for co-ordinating surplus food supply across: Barnet, Camden, Ealing, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Islington, Redbridge, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, and Westminster. FareShare will co-ordinate: Barking & Dagenham, Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Newham, Southwark, Sutton, Wandsworth. City Harvest will do: Brent, City of London, Hammersmith & Fulham, Hounslow, Kensington & Chelsea, Kingston, Richmond. Actual deliveries to boroughs might be made by any of the three providers, based on what is most efficient on the day.