Food campaign passes £1.5m mark thanks to Evening Standard readers

The charity at the heart of Food for London has been transformed thanks to the huge response from Evening Standard readers — who have propelled the amount of cash raised for our campaign to beyond the £1.5 million mark.

The Felix Project, which delivers fresh surplus produce from food outlets to charities feeding hungry Londoners, has doubled its capacity since our campaign was launched two months ago.

Since then the total number of volunteers has risen tenfold to 225 — most of them Standard readers.

The number of food suppliers involved has doubled to 20, with bakeries Paul and Gail’s joining the Felix network as daily suppliers along with the likes of Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Costco.

The number of food collections per month has risen from just 18 in March to 150 — and they now have three vans instead of one to deliver their bounty to 28 charities, with 118 organisations having applied to be taken on outside the current catchment area.

Fortnum & Mason has donated £30,000 to Felix, HelloFresh sold be-spoke foodboxes to raise £33,000, and Citi banking group has given another £40,000, taking their total backing to £500,000. Smaller donors and anonymous givers contributed £39,000.

Recently £50,000 was received from Uber, and Grundig donated six fridges and freezers.

It takes the total raised for Felix to £1.25 million and the aggregate for our campaign — which includes a £350,000 open grants programme — to £1.6 million.

Ewan Venters, chief executive of Fortnum & Mason, said: “We all believe in the same thing — that good food should never go to waste.”

Justin Byam Shaw, co-founder with wife Jane of The Felix Project, and chairman of the Standard, said: “The campaign has been transformational for Felix. Everywhere I go people now know who we are and what we do, and most want to help in some way.

“The influx of volunteers enables us to start delivering to charities in the evenings and at weekends and to start to extend our reach across London.”

More than 150 groups have applied for grants totalling £2.1 million from the £350,000 pot and applications are now closed. The winners will be announced in the spring.