Campaigns like ours have been vital in tackling food poverty

Editorial: Much can be achieved through voluntary action and by the hard work and expertise of charities such as The Felix Project

Staff and volunteers pack and prepare food parcels at the south London warehouse and distribution centre at St Margaret’s Church (Getty)

It is especially appropriate that the recognition of The Independent’s Help the Hungry campaign at the Society of Editors Awards should come on the day the National Food Strategy is published.

Overshadowed, inevitably, by Brexit and the Covid crisis, food poverty has long been one of Britain’s greatest challenges, coupled, as it so often is, with the obesity epidemic. The paradox of the young, especially, growing overweight because their families lack the means or time to prepare more nutritious, less calorific meals, is a familiar and distressing one.

The Dimbleby Report lays out the leading role that the state can play in steering families towards a better diet, through measures that only the government can take – such as a special tax on sugary and salty foodstuffs to encourage the food industry to reformulate its products in a healthier direction. “Prescribing” fresh fruit and vegetables and launching a mass public education campaign are also areas best tackled by public agencies with the full communications apparatus of the government behind them.

Yet, as The Independent’s highly successful campaign demonstrates, much can be achieved through voluntary action and by the hard work and expertise of charities such as The Felix Project, one of the biggest food distributors.

Henry Dimbleby, the government’s adviser on food who authored the new strategic plan, has testified to the indispensable role that agile and innovative foundations such as the Felix Project can play. Some £10m has been raised to help poorer families eat well and eat better through this charity and its associated organisations.

Over a year ago, and some 72 hours after the announcement of the first national lockdown, our appeal was launched, in partnership with sibling title the Evening Standard. It was hardly the most propitious of circumstances for such an appeal – it coincided with the forced closure of businesses, an outbreak of panic buying and even greater pressure on food banks.

Soon many British workers would be furloughed and businesses struggled to survive. Without the activism of figures such as Marcus Rashford, many children would have had to do without free school meals for prolonged periods. Times were getting tougher.

Yet, by the same token, the hardships of the last year, especially falling on the young and those confined to their flats, have made the work of charities such as The Felix Project, founded by Justin Byam-Shaw, even more vital.

Answering our call for funds, the public donated more than £1m, and there were substantial offers of help from Ocado, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Citi, the Garfield Western Foundation and Lansdowne Partners.

The campaign also benefited from high-profile supporters such as the Duchess of Sussex, Damien Hirst, Sir Peter Blake, Olivia Colman, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Jack Whitehall, Melissa Hemsley, Moussa Sissoko, Sir Antony Gormley, Ai Weiwei, Tracey Emin, Bridget Riley, Anish Kapoor, Yinka Shonibare and the proprietor of The Independent, Evgeny Lebedev. Only £150,000 of the £10m plus came from the Treasury.

Since lockdown, The Felix Project has delivered 20 million meals to 600 charities and schools, a new social kitchen has been established in the East End of London, and there is much more to come. The Independent is proud of its record of strong, passionate campaigning on issues from child soldiers to the trade in wild animals and the climate crisis.

In the case of Help the Hungry, the lasting legacy will be the children and families whose quality of life and life chances are being enhanced by the kind of good food that many of us take for granted.