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Your support makes all the difference.The Independent is campaigning to help the hungry across Britain. Food banks are more stretched than ever by the coronavirus pandemic, while job losses and self-isolation for the vulnerable mean they are needed more than ever. But you can help – below is a list of food banks and charities in need of money, food donations and volunteers.
If you are a food charity in need of help, get in touch with us at helpthehungry@independent.co.uk to be added to this list.
The Felix Project
The Felix Project rescues surplus from restaurants, retailers and manufacturers and gets it out to people in need. We are supporting the charity’s work in collaboration with our sister title, the Evening Standard. The Felix Project has formed the London Food Alliance along with two other food surplus charities – FareShare and City Harvest – to supply council-run community hubs in every London borough with produce. From there, volunteers will deliver it to the doorsteps of the most vulnerable. Follow this link to help the charity expand its work.
FareShare
The UK’s biggest food redistribution charity, FareShare takes food that cannot be sold in shops because of overproduction or packing errors, then passes it on to food banks, hospices, homeless hostels and other charities. The charity needs more volunteers for its warehouses, vans and offices across the UK – find out more.
City Harvest
Set up in 2014, the London food redistribution charity rescues food surplus and delivering to those who need it the most. City Harvest collects from supermarkets, wholesale markets, manufacturers and the hospitality industry. Vans deliver to over 300 London community programmes, including homeless shelters, mental health community projects, family centres, children’s programmes, and domestic abuse refuges. Find our more here.
Trussell Trust
There are more than 1,200 food banks across the UK supported by the Trussell Trust. You can find information on giving money or food, as well as how to volunteer, here.
Independent Food Aid Network
The charity oversees 834 independent food banks in Britain. To find out more about grassroots food aid providers near you – and how to help them – visit their website.
Covid-19 Mutual Aid UK
Covid-19 Mutual Aid UK is a network of more than 1,000 grassroots groups helping people in need in their local area during the coronavirus crisis, providing food and other resources, and connecting people to other support services. You can find your a group in your area here.
UK government food parcels
The government can arrange for an emergency parcel to anyone on a NHS list of around 1.5 million people deemed “clinically extremely vulnerable” told to remain at home for 12 weeks who cannot get food. To register, you can find the details on the government website here.
The Care Workers' Charity
The charity issues grants to care workers in financial difficulty and has seen a huge spike in demand during the coronavirus outbreak. It has launched an emergency fund to provide care workers who are self-isolating and not receiving sick pay with £500 grants. You can donate to the fund here.
Edinburgh Community Food
The charity works with low-income communities in Edinburgh on healthy eating and lifestyle habits and operate fruit and veg stalls in local hospitals, but has responded to the crisis by deliver essential food parcels to vulnerable people in the city. Find out more here.
Food4
Run by YMCA Bedfordshire, Food4 takes surplus food donated by supermarkets and food retailers, and redistributes to those in need. It is now offering a delivery service to those who are unable to collect in the Bedford area. You can find out more here.
BreadnButter
The London-based social enterprise teaches the basic life skills of cooking, sustainability and healthy independent living. It has adapted to the coronavirus crisis by getting between 300 and 600 food parcels and nutritious cooked meals out to vulnerable people at home each day. Find out more here.
The Auckland Project
Shifting our focus from arts and cultural programme, the regeneration in Bishop Auckland is now working to help feed people in the region during the crisis, with more than 10,000 meals produced for vulnerable people in the area so far. It is now also planting produce in the walled garden in Auckland Castle that can be used as ingredients for the meals in the months ahead. Find our more here.
Be Enriched
The south London charity that typically brings people from all backgrounds together to share a community meal three times a week. Due to the coronavirus crisis it has shifted operations to deliver hot meals and fruit and veg parcels to vulnerable people in Lambeth and Wandsworth, and is currently fundraising to meet the unprecedented demand. Find our more here.
Wandsworth Food Partnership
This group of charities, individuals, and organisations working toward a better food system in the Borough of Wandsworth. It has launched the Wandsworth COVID-19 Direct Relief Fund to provide emergency support for people in the borough who can’t afford food or essential supplies, and is fundraising to provide essentials for vulnerable residents. More details here.
Made In Hackney
Made In Hackney is a community food kitchen running cooking courses and initiatives with charity partners in the east London borough. It has responded to the coronavirus crisis by getting hundreds of free meals out to people struggling with health and financial problems thanks to a network of volunteers on bikes. Find out more here.
City Catering Southampton
The Southampton-based catering charity delivers school meals and care meals across the city. It is continuing to provide much needed meals to schools on site, and to those eligible for free school meals off site. It has seen an almost 100 per cent increase in our care meals demand for vulnerable and elderly adults across the city, and has started a Covid-19 response fund. More details here.
The Jesuit Refugee Service UK
The service has been working on transforming face-to-face services for refugees – including providing meals, clothes, toiletries and more – to deliveries across London. JRS UK are looking for volunteers who can collect food parcels and hygiene packs to vulnerable and destitute refugees in the capital. Find out more here.
Made Up Kitchen
Hosting regular community feasts in east London, the project has stepped up to the crisis by delivering around hundreds of nutritious meals each week to people in the area who are struggling financially using surplus food. Find out more here.
Stourbridge Community Support Facebook Group
The group of volunteers helped hundreds of people in the West Midlands area who are self-isolating get shopping and medicine, and supports the Black Country Food Bank with the delivery of food packages. Find out more here.
Neo Community
The charity based in Rock Ferry Birkenhead runs a social supermarket and after-school activities, and has responded to the outbreak has been to join forces with Wirral Council and other local volunteer groups to get food hampers to all those in need. Find out more here.
Sufra
The north-west London charity run a food bank and a community kitchen, as well as providing advice on issues such as universal credit and debt management. Demand for food aid and advice has shot up since the beginning of the outbreak, and Sufra is looking for more support. Find out more here.
Haringey Play Association
Haringey Play Association has kept its food hub in Tottenham open during the crisis, offering a free groceries and cooked meals to all parents who are struggling financially each Thursday. The Felix Project had helped them meet increased demand for help. Find out more here.
Noor Foodbank
The Preston independent food bank, run entirely by volunteers, has been forced to close its doors, But it has adapted by getting food parcels out to people in need and is looking for more support. Find out more here.
The Welcome Centre
The independent food bank in Huddersfield lost 50 per cent of its volunteers since the lockdown began. Yet demand for help has roughly doubled. Kirklees Council has sent two members of full-time staff to help The Welcome Centre carry on by making home deliveries across the West Yorkshire town. For more details go here.
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