London’s largest food redistribution charity has been joined by actor and regular volunteer David Morrissey to help celebrate the refurbishment of their depot in Enfield.
The Felix Project, London’s largest food redistribution charity, recently upgraded the North London site, at full capacity it can now store 500% more food in total than before. That’s the equivalent of 90,000 meals every week that could be going to people in the area. The depot can now store:
Charlotte Hill OBE, CEO of The Felix Project said: “The improvements are incredible, and we could not have done it without the generous support of so many organisations. The increased capacity means we are able store enough food to help thousands more people in London and crucially ensure we can accept frozen food, which can be used when fresh surplus food supply is low. What is vital now is that we get new suppliers giving us their surplus. We urgently need more food so we can be there for those facing hunger and to ensure community organisations can have their incredible impact. Every single organisation we supply is asking for more food and there are over 600 new organisations on our waiting list, many right here in North London, but we need more food before we can start to do anything to help.”
The depot in Enfield is currently responsible for delivering 12,000 meals a week to 177 community organisations and schools across the boroughs of Enfield, Barnet, Haringey, Waltham Forest, North Hackney and Camden.
One of the community leaders, who was at the celebration, is Grassroots' project lead and Enfield Food Alliance Coordinator, Dionne John is one of the coordinator’s, she said: “Without The Felix Project we wouldn’t be able to reach the communities who desperately need our help. This collaboration makes it possible for us to support its most vulnerable residents. At Enfield Food Alliance our membership of over 60 organisations work with a wide spectrum of people including those supporting the Somali, Nigerian, Ghanaian, Bulgarian, Turkish and other ethnic groups. Grassroots, a member of the food alliance, is a network of foodbanks and pantries and Felix food goes to both. We just could not operate on the scale that we do without Felix, instead people would be queuing round the block for limited stock and we would have to turn very vulnerable people away.”
An average of total of 95 volunteers help sort, pack and deliver the food. One of those volunteers is actor David Morrissey, the Sherwood and Britannia star has been volunteering with the charity since 2017 and was at the depot to cut the ribbon. He said: “I first started volunteering with The Felix Project because I thought the idea of saving food from going to waste and giving it to people in need was just such a simple and effective way to make a difference. I am astounded by how the charity has grown and now how great this new depot is. I just hope they can get in even more food and volunteer support to ensure they can be there to feed more people.”
The refurbishment was made possible by a number of funders including Ocado, who were at the event to celebrate. The food retail giant supplied around 445 tonnes of food to The Felix Project in 2022 and donated money to enable the charity to do the work on the depot. Jonathan Wiseman, General Counsel and Chief People Officer at Ocado Retail said: “We’re incredibly proud to have helped fund the refurbishment of The Felix Project's Enfield site. Ocado has supported The Felix Project for the past four years and in that time, we've made financial contributions alongside donations of electric vans and the equivalent of 1 million meals. But, this is just the beginning - we’re looking forward to continuing to support this fantastic charity in the fight against food waste and hunger in London.”
Murali Ramadoss, Director at The Chellaram added: “One of the directions of The Chellaram Foundation is to work with partners in making an impact to protect environment and help providing food to vulnerable and homeless people. Increasing the capacity at Enfield depot was crucial for delivering more food to charity partners across North London and we are happy to be one of the sponsors for the refurbishment project.”
If you can supply The Felix Project with food, please email the supply team.
Photos by Nigel Howard
