There was a frisson of excitement at Idia’s Community Kitchen in Hackney when Celebrity Gogglebox star Babatunde Aléshé dropped in for a visit to support our Christmas Campaign.
The actor and stand-up comedian arrived at midday to prepare jollof rice and vegetables for some of the charity’s 1,000 weekly patrons and then sat down for a fist bump and a chat with early arrivals who had come for a hot meal, a bag of surplus fresh produce to take home, and a chat.
The 37-year-old, who has written movingly about growing up poor in inner city London, asked the patrons whether the community kitchen had been a blessing and “massive for their mental health”. “When I was younger, I could have done with something like this,” he said. “I didn’t always have it easy growing up, so it means a lot to me to support this appeal. Seeing this place and what they offer and all this food provided by FareShare, it’s pretty amazing.”
Idia’s Community Kitchen is one of 8,500 charities supplied by FareShare, the biggest provider of surplus food in the country and one of the groups we are funding in our Winter Survival Appeal in partnership with Comic Relief.
Aina Omo-Bare, 57, founder and chief cook of Idia’s, said FareShare provided them with hundreds of pounds of free surplus food every day for their seven-day-a-week operation. Aina started the charity in memory of her daughter, Idia, who died aged 11 from typhoid fever after drinking contaminated water in Nigeria.
Babatunde, whose mother grew up in Lagos, heard how the need for Idia’s kitchen has grown because of the cost of living crisis. Aina said: “It is no longer just homeless or under-privileged people that come here, it’s everybody. It’s people with jobs, kids from school. The biggest change is seeing people in work needing our food. My niece is a nurse and she comes to get food for her colleagues who are nurses as well. We have dinner ladies at a children’s hospital send us food containers to fill. The need is big and it’s spreading.”
Sarah (not her real name), 39, a patron who also volunteers for the community kitchen, said: “I never thought I would be a person who needed a food bank, but when Covid hit, I was working in a nursery and they let me go. When I found this place, it was not just food they offered but conversation. I felt I belonged and was happy to be here. Now that I have my job back, I come to volunteer, but the extra food is helpful because my electricity bill is eating my wages.”
Tayo Agbaje, a trustee of Idia’s, told Babatunde how he got involved with the charity. “After my accident in my Land Rover, I felt I had been given another chance and I asked myself, why am I here, what am I leaving behind? I decided to go out to see the need and that’s how I started.”
Babatunde said: “Being here is inspiring. What Aina and her team do for the community is so much more than providing hot meals and bags of food to take home. It’s clearly a safe space for people to talk openly about their mental health, access essentials like soap and toothpaste, and even get advice with housing, benefits and job applications. I’ve learnt that just £10 could help provide 40 meals for families at a local community centre.”
Babatunde asked Tayo what it meant for him to be involved. “You have a feeling in your heart that you’ve saved somebody’s life,” said Tayo. “The food you helped cook today will help around 250 people, not just those who come here but people on the street like at Dalston Market. Later when we go out, I will be shouting, “listen up, everybody, Babatunde Aléshé cooked this!”
How you can help
£10 could provide a nourishing meal for a Londoner every day for a month
£20 could provide a duvet and pillow to a young person helping them sleep at night
£50 could contribute to a new school uniform for a child fleeing with a parent from an abusive relationship
£100 could provide 400 meals for families at a local community centre
£300 could pay for all that’s needed by a family expecting a baby, including new cot, mattress and pram
£1,750 could get a truck packed with enough food for 7,000 meals
In a nutshell
We have partnered with Comic Relief to launch our Winter Survival Appeal Christmas Campaign, with Comic Relief pledging £500,000 to kick off our fund. The money we raise will help fund charities in London and across the country helping people who are struggling with the cost of living crisis
To make a donation, visit comicrelief.com/wintersurvival
