The charity that the Evening Standard helped launch in 2016 to tackle food poverty and waste in London was on Tuesday given more than £3.1 million, along with the Mayor’s Fund for London.
The Felix Project, London’s biggest food redistribution charity and the beneficiary of our Food for London campaign, was given the emergency funding by Sadiq Khan to prevent London schoolchildren going hungry during the holidays. The Mayor called on the Government to do more to combat school holiday hunger nationally as he revealed plans to spend £3.5 million on about 10 million meals for low-income families in the capital over the next year.
The cash will be targeted at organisations that help families during school holidays and the project will begin in time for this year’s Easter break.
It comes amid fears that children who get free school meals during term time miss out in school holidays. Mr Khan has already announced plans to pay for free school meals for all primary school children in London regardless of their family income from September.
The one-off £3.1 million given to the Mayor’s Fund and the Felix Project will allow them to expand provision of food to low-income families in school holidays and create 6.9 million extra meals. A further £425,000 will go to the Felix Project, which delivers surplus food to charities and schools, to allow it to deliver food on Saturdays.
Charlotte Hill, CEO at the Felix Project, said: “It is vital food provision continues during school holidays.”
