Date: May 2021
Category: Welfare
Building on its highly successful ‘Food for London Now’ campaign, in May 2021 the Evening Standard announced that it would be opening a social kitchen that will cook 1.5m meals a year. To continue fighting hunger in the city, the news brand’s proprietor Evgeny Lebedev launched the initiative under the banner of ‘Let’s End Hunger in Our City Now’ in a letter on the front page of the paper.
The campaign will create the largest social kitchen in central London, as part of a scheme providing food to those most in need in the capital. At the end of 2020, the news brand announced that its ‘Food for London Now’ appeal had raised a staggering £10m and delivered 20 million meals throughout its campaign.
The Evening Standard’s social kitchen will provide 6,000 meals a day, which will be delivered to locations across the capital through Deliveroo and long-term partner The Felix Project. To fund the scheme, the Evening Standard’s Dispossessed Fund has given £1m. The news brand has focused its attention on food poverty due to the detrimental impact of the pandemic. According to The Food Foundation, one in eight children in London have experienced food insecurity over the past months.
One of the lessons we should take from this crisis is the value of collective action and community spirt. This kitchen will be an essential weapon in our battle to end food poverty for good in London. Together, let’s get it done.
Evening Standard proprietor, Evgeny Lebedev
