Yahoo Finance Ready, steady…cook: Felix mega kitchen rolls out its first meals
The huge social kitchen created as a result of our Food For London Now appeal has served the first set of hot meals from its base in Tower Hamlets.
The site, which is run by our appeal partner The Felix Project, will produce more than 1.5 million meals per year to feed hungry school children and vulnerable families across the capital.
Chicken curry, sweet potato, lentils and vegetable cuisines are just a few of the meals that will be delivered by a fleet of vans to a network of community groups who will ensure it goes to those most in need.
The site, which is the largest charity social kitchen created in central London, was made possible by the donations of Evening Standard readers and a £1 million donation from the Standard’s Dispossessed Fund.
Schoolchildren from areas that will receive the meals were joined by former Tottenham footballer Ledley King to see the kitchen go into operation.
King, who revealed that he also understood how difficult it was for his mother to put food on the table, told the Standard: “As someone who grew up in the area, I know what it’s like to go through what a lot of families here will be going through.”
During his visit through the kitchen, he said he was “gobsmacked” with the amount of food that was being delivered and redistributed into the community.
One recipient, mother-of-two, Mariana, 45, said the pandemic had been a “really difficult time” for her and she said she didn’t know what she would have done without the charity.
Last year, the charity’s mission was backed by our Food For London Now initiative which facilitated its expansion to supply an extraordinary 29 million meals to more than 900 charities and schools.
Head chef Leon Aarts said: “It’s a very humbling and gratifying experience. This is something that we started 16 months ago before the first lockdown, where we cooked and delivered food to people who needed our support and now that’s moved into this kitchen, where we have the ability to cook well over 5,000 meals a day. That’s humbling.”
Justin Byam-Shaw, The Felix Project founder, said: “We intend this to be the biggest social kitchen in Europe. And we hope that people in cities and towns around the UK will copy our model.”
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