Food For London Now: Pick your own to help feed the capital… Felix Project volunteers hit the fields

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Oliver Poole27 April 2020

Volunteers spent the day on a farm to harvest vegetables that would have otherwise gone to waste so the produce could be turned into meals for our Food for London Now appeal.

More than six tonnes was secured from the farm near Margate in Kent by the 20 harvesters, who all volunteer for our appeal partner The Felix Project.

Helping our initiative, the farmer had an excess of cauliflowers and brassicas that he offered for free if the charity was able to come and pick them.

The recent warm weather had sped up their growth cycle, meaning the farm would have been unable to harvest and sell them before they flowered and spoiled.

In addition, the farm was able to donate potatoes that were deemed too big or too small for the commercial market.

Katie Brookes, from Edenbridge, was one of the harvesters who responded to the request for help sent out by the Felix Project on social media. She spent a day last week cutting cauliflowers.

She admitted it had been hard work as each volunteer was given a knife to cut the vegetables before placing them in string sacks. Social distancing meant they were each given their own row to harvest.

But the 53-year-old said the hard work was worth it. “Everyone wanted to get out and do something. It was a great opportunity to help out and do something worthwhile.”

Say cheese: volunteers at the farm near Margate with some of the cauliflowers harvested before the veg went to see
Matt Writtle

Hackney-based NGO Feedback Global, which is working to secure more sustainable food systems, worked with The Felix Project to secure the produce by alerting the charity to the opportunity.

Once harvested, the food was then taken in Felix Project vans to its depot in Enfield for storage.

Projects it will help supply include local homeless hostels, community kitchens, women’s refuge centres, services for the elderly and food banks.

The Standard’s Food for London Now appeal has so far raised £3 million and is delivering the equivalent of 100,000 meals a day to vulnerable people across the capital.

Our campaign 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.

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