From a single delivery van to 20,000 meals: How the Felix Project grew

The Felix Project was founded last year by the Evening Standard chairman, Justin Byam Shaw, in memory of his son.

Justin and his wife Jane wanted to do something to help the most vulnerable members of society. Near their home in Oxford, Justin saw a scheme, the Oxford Food Bank, that collected waste food from supermarkets and other retailers and delivered it to frontline charities.

He saw an opportunity to make a difference in London, where food waste and food poverty are two of its greatest scandals. Nearly 400,000 people regularly go hungry. Most of these charities, which include refuges, homeless shelters and day centres, do not have the resources to collect food. For supermarkets on tight margins, there is little incentive to ensure every potato or carrot is used.

Working out of a small warehouse in Park Royal, The Felix Project began collecting surplus food from supermarkets and delivering it to charities in west London. There, the produce could be used to make cheap, hot, nutritious meals. Last autumn, food waste was the focus of the Evening Standard’s special investigation. It called for volunteers to help The Felix Project pick up and deliver food. Politicians, including Jeremy Corbyn and Sadiq Khan, backed the campaign, as well as celebrities Mumford & Sons and Michael Kiwanuka and chefs Simon Rogan, Ollie Dabbous, Skye Gyngell and Francesco Mazzei. With the help of the newspaper and its readers, The Felix Project has grown from a handful of volunteers and one van to 250 volunteers, 10 vans and 10 full-time staff, delivering 10 tonnes of food a week, which charities use to supply 20,000 meals. In total, there are more than 800 collections a month from 94 suppliers, and 851 deliveries to 122 charities.

The suppliers include Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, HelloFresh, Fortnum & Mason, Selfridges, Pret a Manger, Whole Foods, MASH and many more. Corporate backers include Uber, D&D Restaurants and Citibank. A Crowdfunder campaign raised £160,000 towards a depot in Enfield which opened this month.

Evening Standard readers have saved thousands of Londoners from going hungry and hundreds of tons of food from going to waste.