Families chose groceries from a “mini market” set up with surplus food from restaurants and supermarkets and other supplies
(Picture: )The charity at the centre of our Food for London Now campaign has been helping to feed hundreds of Ukrainian refugees who have just arrived in London as the UK marks Refugee Week.
The Felix Project has worked with the newly established Ukrainian Welcome Centre to provide food and support as displaced Ukrainians make a new home in the capital after escaping their war-torn country
Last Friday around 150 women and children enjoyed a hot dinner of pork, vegetable stews, rice and potatoes cooked and served by the food redistrubution charity and volunteers at the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain (AUGB) London branch in Holland Park.
Families also chose groceries from a “mini market” set up with surplus food from restaurants and supermarkets and other supplies.
The event will be held weekly at the welcome centre, which launched two weeks ago as a joint project between AUGB and the Ukraine Catholic Eparchy of the Holy Family.
A meal will be provided this week with the help of Hello Fresh, which delivers a large amount of high quality meat and fish, dairy, fruit and vegetables to the charity direct from its warehouse in Banbury each week.
AUGB deputy chair Anna Dezyk told the Standard that many guests had only lived in England for two weeks before coming to the meal.
“We’re helping them because they’ve come here with nothing apart from a suitcase, and very often only with winter clothes.
“A lot of them speak about what they’ve left and what they’ve lost. Some say, ‘My house has been bombed, I had a beautiful apartment, it’s not there anymore’.
“Just listening to people is important.”
The Felix Project community partnerships manager Damien Conrad said: “For displaced people, seeing Londoners showing solidarity and fighting their corner is an important part of their rehabilitation.”
The charity use staggering food surpluses in London to tackle food poverty, transforming an environmental problem into a social solution.
It was backed from the outset by our 2016 Food for London campaign and again in 2020 by our award-winning Food For London Now campaign in partnership with our sister paper The Independent, which helped The Felix Project raise an extraordinary £12 million and led to a quadrupling of its food redistribution.
