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The London Standard is unveiling The Standard 100, a list of the top hundred men and women shaping the capital in 2024.
The line-up covers the variety of expertise and knowledge that make our capital great - from politics and media, the arts, music, food, to science and medicine.
In this episode, we hear from our editor-in-chief Dylan Jones, and Charlotte Hill, chief executive of food redistribution charity The Felix Project, who features on today’s list.
The charity gave out the equivalent of 32 million meals to people across every London borough.
Over the next few months, we’ll be showcasing more people from the list, so make sure you keep an eye on our feed.
You can find The Standard on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you stream.
Here’s a fully automated transcript of this episode:
From London, I'm Rachelle Abbott, and this is The Standard.
The London Standard is unveiling The Standard 100, a list of the top 100 men and women shaping the capital in 2024.
The extraordinary lineup covers a range of categories and sectors that make our capital great, from politics and media, the arts, music, food, to science and medicine.
To find out more, here's The London Standard's editor-in-chief, Dylan Jones.
Our capital is obviously the greatest city on the planet, and we have such a wealth of creative talent in London.
And periodically, we like to celebrate that, which is what we've done this week by choosing 100 people who the collective minds of The Standard think are shaping our city.
And that's people involved in music and fashion, culture and entertainment, politics, science, transport, art, and environment, restaurants, a wide variety of people who are generally contributing to the success and the cultural IP and the growth of our city.
London is so great because I think there is something regenerative about the city.
Generation after generation of incredibly talented people seem to come to London and are born by London.
And even though London can be a very challenging place to grow up in or even to move to, it continually surprises itself, I think, with this, as I say, this constant regeneration of young extraordinarily talented people.
And this list is a reflection of some of those young people as well as some people who have been more established and who contribute to the IP and the general creative welfare of our city.
And you can see this list in today's paper, The London Standard, so please pick one up.
Over the next few months, we'll be showcasing those on the list.
Today, we're kicking off with Charlotte Hill, Chief Executive of Food Redistribution Charity, The Felix Project, which last year gave out the equivalent of 32 million meals to people across every London borough.
Welcome to the podcast, Charlotte.
Thank you so much for having me.
No, it's a pleasure to have you.
For any listeners that don't know, what is the story behind The Felix Project?
What do you do and how do you operate?
So I have the great privilege of being the Chief Executive of The Felix Project.
We rescue surplus food that would otherwise go to waste.
We sort it in our warehouses or we cook it in Felix's kitchen, and then we distribute it to over 1,200 charities every day, right across the year, 364 days a year.
And we do that with the help of 15,000 amazing volunteers.
And we're on track to do about 37 million meals this year, to give you a sense of the scale.
And the reason why we're called The Felix Project is because there was a brilliant young man called Felix, who was passionate about both food waste and food insecurity.
He had played football against boys who had not eaten breakfast.
And he thought this was absolutely terrible, that there were boys of his age who hadn't eaten.
And so he was a passionate campaigner about this work.
Now, very tragically, and suddenly, he died at age 14.
And his parents, after his death, thought rather than do something around meningitis, which is what he died of, they thought what would be impacts that Felix would want to have in the world had he lived.
And so they set up The Felix Project, which is this magical organization that genuinely gives hope to thousands and thousands and thousands of Londoners every week who are otherwise struggling to put food on the table, as well as having a really significant environmental impact.
And how long did it take from developing the idea to when it kicked off?
So we're eight years old as an organization now.
So we were a really young charity still, and we have scaled incredibly quickly, but it started off just as a very small kind of garage in West London, where we were doing really small volumes.
And has scaled now, we've got four different warehouses that do food across London in North, South, East and West London.
We have something called Felix's Multibank out West where we rescue other surplus items like toiletries and bedding and hygiene products that we give to communities who are struggling.
we have Felix's Kitchen where we cook about 5,000 meals a day.
Are you doing any work with the government?
We are working with the government.
I mean, we work with local authorities all the time.
We work with Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, who's been an amazing supporter of our work, both across the kind of holiday hunger programmes we're doing.
But actually, we are at the moment asking the national government to really help us access more surplus food.
There is so much food wasted at the farm gate particularly that we could be accessing.
But equally, there's lots of different legislative or regulatory things the government could do that mean we could access even more food.
So there's a lot we're asking Rachel Reeves to do this week, but also actually across government around how we can most support people with getting that food out of the food system to people in need.
Tell us about your background.
What led you to work at The Felix Project?
I've been really lucky.
This is my third charity chief executive job.
I was a charity chief executive of two other organizations working with young people prior to the pandemic.
And then during the pandemic, I saw how many people were struggling.
And this cause just really spoke to me as something that was really important.
And so I applied to join The Felix Project about three years ago now.
And cannot tell you what a joyful job it is.
I think you can imagine that sometimes when you're dealing with people who are really struggling to eat, it could feel like it's a really hopeless and a tough time.
And it never feels like that at Felix.
Felix is a place where people come in their thousands to volunteer because it is an empowering, joyful, can-do place where a community of people come together to say, We don't want this food to go to waste.
We want it to go to people who really need it.
Actually, it's the most energizing, awesome place to work.
I absolutely love it.
It feels like honestly such a gift of a job to get to do.
And what drives you in your role as Chief Exec?
Goodness.
Well, a number of things.
I guess the first thing is the impact we have.
You would have to have a heart of stone to not feel really proud of the fact that one, this food would be going to waste if it wasn't from this organization, which is in itself an environmental scandal.
But secondly, to see the impact the food has, you know, I'm a mum of two, I cannot imagine the stress of not being able to put food on the table for them.
So I think one of the things that drives me is, it's brilliant to see the impact that this food has.
But the other thing is that community of people I described earlier, it is so motivating to be surrounded by such brilliant, impressive, committed, dedicated colleagues, colleagues and volunteers who all come together, as well as that wider community of food supply partners, the community organizations and funders and volunteers.
It's just, it's an amazing place to work.
So I'm motivated by the impacts, but I'm incredibly motivated by the people as well.
What's the most challenging part of your job?
The most difficult part is the fact that we support 1,200 community organizations, but we have about 750 on our waiting list.
So that's 750 domestic violence shelters or homeless shelters or food banks who are all asking for our food and who we can't yet provide to.
And unless we get three things, an increase in funding, an increase in food and an increase in volunteers, we just won't be able to reach them.
Let's go to the ads.
Coming up…
I like to be scared and a bit challenged every day by doing something outside my comfort zone.
And I think that's how you grow.
That's how you learn.
And failure and all of those things is how we get better.
We'll see you back here in just a minute.
So, how does it feel to be on The Standard's 100 list?
I think it's a massive testament to The Felix Project, actually, and the position it has now, as we want to be one of London's best-loved charities.
And it really feels like that.
This is an organization by Londoners for Londoners.
As I said, thousands of Londoners come and give their time to Felix every year.
And that's because it's an amazing place.
So obviously, it's a massive privilege to be named.
But actually, this is about The Felix Project.
This is about the fact that this organization is now a really important part of the infrastructure of London.
I'm very lucky.
I jump out of bed every morning massively motivated by my job.
And of course, it's lovely for an amazing institution like The Evening Standard, who have been an incredible partner to The Felix Project for many, many years.
Lots of our volunteers I speak to, when I say, how did you find out about The Felix Project?
They often say, I read about it in The Standard.
So I always feel like we've got this beautiful kind of partnership with The Standard, where you've really helped us grow and have impacts.
So there is something lovely about The Standard, recognising the work of The Felix Project and all that we do.
And it's of course motivating for us all to have that work recognised.
So a massive thank you to The Standard.
It's really humbling and lovely that you have been with us on this journey.
Back to you and your career.
Have you faced any challenges that you feel have helped you in the long run?
Oh goodness, every day.
I always say to my team that I'd like to do something every day that gives me a sweaty palm moment.
I like to be scared and a bit challenged every day by doing something outside my comfort zone.
And I think that's how you grow.
That's how you learn.
And failure and all of those things is how we get better.
I always try and say to my kids as well as my colleagues, like, don't be afraid of failure.
That's how we learn.
And if you're not failing, it means you're not trying.
It means you're not trying new things.
It means you're not innovating.
And goodness, I've learnt the most from failure.
And in all sorts of different roles, where things haven't gone quite how I wanted it to, my colleague and I talk about full benefit.
How do you get the full benefit out of any situation you're in?
And even if it's been a really, really rubbish day, at the end of the day, if you can kind of look in the mirror and say, have I got the full benefit out of this day, which means have I taken every ounce of the learning out of the day?
Then I think that's a good day, even if it's been a tough day.
Now, you meet a lot of people in your line of work.
Are there any examples that stick out in your mind of some of the people that you've helped through the years?
I always think that we kind of shouldn't frame it that it's about how The Felix Project has helped people because we are genuinely a partnership.
So all of those community organizations, and I'll give you a couple of examples that we distribute food to, without them, then it's just food.
But what those community organizations do is they use that surplus food for amazing social good.
So if, for example, we're going to a trustful trust food bank, where we are taking food to them, but alongside the food, they're offering citizens advice bureau advice to support people out of poverty, or they're offering employability skills, or there's a health worker there making sure vaccines are being distributed, or people are having their blood pressure checked.
You know, alongside getting food, which is of course an essential thing, they're getting all of the rest of those things that are helping them step out of that cycle of poverty, or whatever it is that's led them to being there.
So, I don't think we should think about it as being a way that we are helping people.
I think it's a way that we're partnering with amazing grassroots community organizations to do incredible social impacts.
And one that comes to mind is this amazing chap called Father Neil, who is a vicar in East London, in Tower Hamlets, very close to our depot in Tower Hamlets.
And I talk to Father Neil most weeks.
He comes into the depot, or we just take food out to him.
And he always describes the impact that that food has for, I think it's about 200 families every week.
And he describes Thursday as the new Sunday at his church, because Thursday is the day they give out the Felix food.
But it's also one of the most impactful things that he and his community have done.
They've been working with The Felix Project for many years now.
And actually, the stories that he comes and tells me every week about the impact that the food and the multibank products are having for his parishioners.
What are your plans for the future with The Felix Project?
Are you going to branch out nationwide?
We are really focused on London.
We know that London absolutely needs us.
As I just described, we still have a huge number of community organizations we're not reaching yet.
And most of the community organizations we distribute food to are asking us for more.
So we are going to redouble our efforts.
We are very much focused on how we can work with the government to try and access more surplus food in a much more systemic way.
It's brilliant.
We work hand in glove with the retailers and manufacturers.
But as I said, there's lots of different things we could do with government that would really make a big step change in how we access surplus food.
So a big push for us is pulling some of those levers that we can pull working in government with lots of our other partners in the food redistribution sector to really drive proper embedded systemic change around how we access food in this country.
And we are opening a really exciting processing unit in South London at the beginning of next year where we're going to be turning big seasonal gluts of surplus food into things like soups and sauces and all sorts of different things, dehydrating things, turning them into pesto and things.
So we're always innovating, we're always trying new things, but that's going to be opening in the new year as an exciting new venture for The Felix Project.
Can I just ask one more question actually about you?
When you were growing up, were there any traits you had that tie into now, or is your career something you wouldn't have imagined?
So I always credit a huge amount of my drive to have social impact to my mum.
So I grew up in a single parent household with a mum who didn't have much and she worked so incredibly hard to make sure that me and my sister had choices.
She always grew up not really having choices herself because she grew up in really tough times.
And she always said to us that if I do nothing else, I want to make sure you girls have choices and options.
But alongside doing that, she also volunteered locally and she would take us along.
Ever since I was a baby, like I remember going along with my mum when she was volunteering.
She was a single parent.
She didn't have any choice but to take us with her.
So I kind of grew up with the idea of service, that service was what you did, that being part of a community and caring about that community and being part of it.
Even if you didn't have very much yourself, you could always give your time.
And so I think because of the role model I had in my mum, who is just an amazing and determined woman.
Yeah, I always feel really lucky that even if we grew up with what wouldn't traditionally have been thought that we had much, actually we had a lot, we had a lot because I had a great role model who told me that helping other people is actually the secret to happiness.
And it's completely true.
And that's The Standard.
To view the full list, head to standard.co.uk or pick up this week's paper.
This podcast is back tomorrow at 4pm.
See you then.
