The King visits the Felix Project in East London
22 Feb 2023 04:34 PM
Founded in 2016, the Felix Project is London’s largest food redistribution charity
The King visited The Felix Project to recognise the staff, volunteers and partner organisations who work to provide meals to some of London’s most vulnerable people.
The Felix Project was started to tackle two issues: food waste and food poverty. The charity rescues high-quality surplus food from a wide range of sources including farms, food manufacturers and supermarkets, before distributing the food to around 1,000 community groups and schools across the capital.
They supply foodbanks, pantries, homeless shelters, domestic abuse refuges and over 170 schools across all of London’s boroughs. This summer, they will distribute their 100 millionth meal since opening.
During the visit, His Majesty will toured the kitchens, where volunteers were busy preparing and packing meals, and the depot area, which contains custom-made walk-in chillers to store fresh produce.
Felix’s Kitchen has become central to The Felix Project’s operations since it was established in 2021. The Kitchen uses surplus food to create 3,500-5,000 meals every day, such as chicken curry and rice or lentil bake and mashed potatoes.
The King also unveiled freezer, which is due to be sent out to a community partner.
The Felix Project recognised more food could be saved with more frozen storage facilities, and if more of the organisations the charity worked with had fridges or freezers to extend the life of frozen and fresh food.
Now, thanks to a special and restricted starter fund of £1million, which includes a donation from His Majesty The King, The Prince of Wales Charitable Fund, and other funders, over 600 fridges and freezers have already been distributed throughout the UK; and 200 more are being readied.
Outside, His Majesty was shown the Felix Project’s electric vans being loaded ready for delivery. In total, The Felix Project has a fleet of 45 vehicles which transport produce around London.