Food For London Now: Jack Whitehall reveals 'I only discovered how vital Felix Project is when I volunteered to help food deliveries for vulnerable'
Jack Whitehall today backed the Evening Standard’s ambitious campaign to feed London during the coronavirus crisis.
While volunteering for The Felix Project, our charity partner, the comedian praised its “vital” work in responding to the hunger crisis in London.
Whitehall has launched his own competition, the Stay at Home Burger Battle , with his friend Marcus Petty-Saphon, to back our Food for London appeal.
Burger-enthusiasts are challenged to photograph their dish and upload it to be judged by a panel recruited by the pair’s food blog, foodSlut.
All money raised by their competition will go towards our Food for London appeal, which supports The Felix Project in delivering food to frontline charities, vulnerable people and NHS staff.
The Bad Education star said: “I had heard about the work of The Felix Project before, but only after I came here today to volunteer did I realise how vital it is.”
Whitehall and Petty-Saphon visited The Felix Project’s Enfield Depot on Friday to do an afternoon delivery shift in the pouring rain. They loaded a van with fresh meat, vegetables and fragrant cheese from Fortnum & Mason, with Whitehall joking “this is more exercise than I’ve done all lockdown”.
They stopped off at a Turkish and Kurdish cultural centre which has become a food bank for the local community. Volunteers were packaging food parcels to be distributed by cyclists to vulnerable people in the community.
So far, they had given out 1,236 food parcels, each of which could feed four people for one week. “Thousands have turned up since the start of the crisis. We help everyone. Refugees, unemployed, anyone of any ethnicity”, one of the organisers said.
The delivery van’s battery proceeded to die, forcing the pair to get behind the van to push it to a jump-start.
They also visited the Bruce Grove youth centre, where volunteers lined up for selfies with Whitehall. Paul, one of the coordinators from Haringey council, explained that the organisation used to offer activities and counselling to local young people.
Now, they deliver food packages to their charges and support people’s physical and mental health from a distance. Another of the staff said he played Fifa with a young person he helps, in order to keep in contact.
After a wet afternoon of volunteering, Whitehall said: “The need is so large now with this crisis, and what The Felix Project is doing in redistributing surplus food feels obvious.
“I hope that the Stay at Home Burger Battle, the competition I launched with my friend Marcus, gives a boost to this vital initiative.”
- Jack Whitehall, his brother Barney and his friend Marcus Petty-Saphon have launched the Stay at Home Burger Battle to support our Food for London appeal. Enter online at foodslut.co.uk/competition
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.