London’s Hunger Crisis: The Charity Stepping Up To Feed The Hungry

A conversation with Marcus Roberts, Relationship Manager at The Felix Project.

Marcus Roberts is the Relationship Manager at The Felix Project. The Felix Project is London’s largest surplus food re-distributor. Free of charge, they collect fresh, nutritious food that cannot be sold in restaurants and supermarkets, and delivers this surplus food to charities and schools so they can provide healthy meals to the most vulnerable in society.

1.5 million adults in London struggle to afford to eat every day, and 400,000 children are at risk of missing their next meal. Meanwhile, our food industry generates almost 2 million tonnes of good, edible surplus food each year.

As Relationship Manager, it is Marcus’s job to maintain the relationships with The Felix Project’s many suppliers and donors such as Fortnum & Mason, Waitrose, and Daylesford Organic. As part of this relationship building, he is heavily involved in the fundraising that these suppliers carry out. He highlights an example of Lady Bamford-owned Daylesford Organic, who produces a range of fermented products where all proceeds go towards The Felix Project.

Marcus has just spent the day with Chelsea and England football player Reece James, volunteering for the charity on one of their regular shifts. Reece recently started a fundraising drive to try and raise £100,000 by his 21st birthday on 8th December.

Marcus says that this “£100,000 is going to provide 610,000 meals for the hungry. It’s so powerful. He is a 20-year-old man who is setting a good example to the youth, especially to other young sports stars in the public eye. Reece using his profile to raise awareness for The Felix Project is an extremely powerful thing.”

When asked how the current pandemic has affected the charity and its donations, Marcus says “massively so.” He sympathises with those that have lost their jobs and says that due to this, “The Felix Project has had to quadruple their distribution of surplus food since March.” They did a big fundraising drive and spoke to their donors. This, along with the Evening Standard’s ‘Food For London Now’ £10 million appeal for The Felix Project, really helped them step up at that time of need. “When the first lockdown happened in March, all the restaurants closed, so all the food in those restaurants had to go somewhere. Instead of it going in the bin, we stepped up with FareShare and other charities and distributed all that surplus food to people in need. There were millions of tonnes of surplus food…it was a huge operation.”

We all have a part to play in helping this very important cause, whether it is coming to volunteer at one of the depots, helping sort and pack, or driving one of the charity’s vans for the day. He says a way that everyone can help right now is by tuning into The Fayre of St. James on 1st December at 19:00. “Every year, it’s one of the biggest events in the charity calendar, and this year it has gone online. Usually, ticket prices are around £500, but this year you can join the virtual event for £30, with all proceeds going to The Felix Project and The Childhood Trust.” On the big names coming together for this cause, Marcus explains that “we’ve got Stephen Fry, Poppy Delevingne, Craig David, Simon Cowell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge amongst many more reading and performing. There are also some amazing prizes to be won.”

I ask Marcus if he thinks celebrities have a duty to be philanthropic and spread positive messages, and he says that “if you have a large platform, it should be used to spread positivity. To lift people and make them feel better about themselves.” On Marcus Rashford’s recent philanthropy, he says that “the whole nation got behind him. We need more positive media coverage on stories like these.”

Marcus’s response to being asked what he’d say to the Prime Minister if he had his attention right now…

“Mr Johnson, one thing I think we can all agree on is that no child should go hungry. Why did it take you so long to make a U-Turn on Marcus Rashford’s scheme? These principles should be set in government legislation anyway. No child should have to go hungry or have to worry about where their next meal is coming from.”

On the support and funding that charities like The Felix Project gets from the government, he says “all of our money comes from people’s kindness and donations. Why aren’t the government funding charities like FareShare and The Felix Project? They should be paying for us; we’re taking food from suppliers for free, and giving it to people for free. The government should fund us. They should be stepping up now in this time of need.”

Go to https://thefelixproject.org for more info, and to find out how you can help.