King Charles opens Merseyside hub for food bank distribution

King Charles formally opened a 'Coronation Food Hub' in Kirkby today, attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony via video link. To mark the King's 76th birthday, he opened two sites as part of his Coronation Food Project - one in London and one on Lees Road, Kirkby.

The new, expanded site will enable FareShare’s operations to provide more food that would otherwise go to waste to local communities and people in need across Merseyside and the wider region. The hub will work to distribute produce to food banks and pantries and its opening of the new hub was supported by donations from the Steve Morgan Foundation and others.

More than 100 local supporters of the project, including key partners, members of the food industry, and charities that receive food from FareShare, attended the event. The Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside, Mark Blundell, cut the ribbon on the new building.

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Speaking over video link, the King said: “Please give my kindest wishes to everybody there. I hope it makes an enormous difference to all their remarkable work that they do.”

In the Coronation Food Project’s first year, 940 tonnes of additional surplus food has been rescued, with 1,900 tonnes more donated; £715,000 has been circulated in community food grants; and £15m has been raised to officially open the first two Coronation Food Hubs in Merseyside and South London.

One year ago, senior leaders from the UK food industry signed a pledge supporting the Coronation Food Project. Since then, the industry has mobilised around a pioneering initiative to create a sustainable, systemic approach to surplus food redistribution across the UK food sector, generating millions more meals for people in need.

Since its launch, the Coronation Food Project, with the support of its food industry partners, has delivered nearly 7 million meals to communities across the UK via the FareShare network.

FareShare Merseyside has been operating for nearly 15 years and is the region’s largest food redistribution charity. It works with the wider FareShare network and the food industry to take good-to-eat surplus food – which might otherwise go to waste – and deliver it to over 260 local charities and community groups. Serving an area that includes not only Merseyside but parts of North Wales, in the last year, the team distributed over 2.7 million meals.

The new site will allow the team, which is largely made up of volunteers, to distribute a wider variety of food, including fresh produce, frozen and chilled items, and ambient food, via regular deliveries across the region. Alongside increased capacity, the move will see improved resources, including kitchens on site and greater efficiency in terms of receiving and distributing food, all helping to reach more communities in need.

Kris Gibbon-Walsh, CEO of FareShare said: “It’s a real pleasure to welcome everyone here today to launch the Coronation Food Hub in Merseyside officially. We know that opening a larger site with greater capacity will make a huge difference, and we’re enormously grateful to all our partners, especially the Steve Morgan Foundation, who have helped bring this project to fruition.

"This new Coronation Food Hub will be instrumental in getting food that might otherwise have gone to waste to more communities more efficiently. This will be transformative for surplus food in Merseyside and beyond, making a huge difference to our capacity for redistributing food to organisations which are providing essential support services and strengthening their communities.”

Steve Morgan CBE, chairman of the Steve Morgan Foundation said: “We are thrilled to see the opening of the new Coronation Food Hub in Merseyside. 12 months ago, we pledged £890,000 to the project to support our region with better surplus food distribution. By working in collaboration with FareShare and other funders, delivery partners and community groups, we hope to reduce food waste and tackle the root causes of food poverty in our communities for the long-term.”

Sam O’Keeffe, from St Matthews Pantry, an organisation which receives food from FareShare Merseyside said: “St Matthews Pantry has been getting food from FareShare for almost 3 years now and it makes a huge difference. We support 130 families in the local community each week and we are able to provide a variety of food thanks to the support from FareShare. The opening of this new Coronation Food Hub will benefit so many more organisations like ours and help many more communities in Merseyside.”

Earlier this month, an investigation revealed the profits that are made by the King from the River Mersey, causing concern for local people and leaders. The Sunday Times and Channel 4's Dispatches programme released their joint investigation into the property empires making millions for King Charles and Prince William.

The newspaper report and television programme included a focus on the River Mersey and its links to King Charles. It revealed that the King's private estate, The Duchy of Lancaster, owns the coastline from Barrow to the River Mersey and because of this, charges the Liverpool City Region's publicly-owned Mersey Ferry a yearly fee for mooring at its pier, which happens to be on Duchy land.