OBE for Founder of Acton-based Charity
Justin Byam Shaw recognised in New Year's honours list
Justin Byam Shaw
January 10, 2023
The founder of an Acton-based food redistribution charity has been given an OBE in the New Year’s honours list.
The work of Justin Byam Shaw with the Felix Project has been recognised with the award being for services to the London Community.
He started the operation in 2016, two years after the death of his teenage son who the charity is named after in recognition of his compassion and hatred for deprivation and poverty.
Its head office is currently in an industrial estate off Kendal Avenue just south of the A40.
Mr Byam Shaw said after the award was announced, “I know it is customary to say this sort of thing, but the truth is that this honour reflects the work of our staff and 1,500 volunteers who feed 400,000 Londoners in need every week.”
The charity’s vans travel around London collecting food that would otherwise be thrown away and giving it to other charities that work with those in need in London.
Last year Felix’s Kitchen, which is part of The Felix Project, made and distributed over one million meals for those in need and the equivalent of 30 million more were given to other charities in 2021. Need for the services that the charity provides has grown significantly as people struggle with the increased cost-of-living particularly with food prices rising faster than the overall average.
In his New Year message to the charity he founded Mr Byam Shaw said, “It beggars belief that such wretched poverty could be happening in one of the richest cities and countries on earth but it is. 10% of the respondents to recent You Gov research, commissioned by The Felix Project, told us that they now have £3 or less to spend on food per day. In London alone, 400,000 children will go to bed this evening without a proper evening meal. I have no idea what it feels like to be really hard up but I am often struck by the sheer mental energy required, if you constantly have to worry about paying the rent on Friday or putting food on the table that evening. I imagine this parental anxiety can have a horrible, long term effect on the development of children too.”
Six months previously, Mr Byam Shaw’s wife, Jane, also received an OBE for her work with the charity and the Felix Project has also been given a person donation by the King.
If you would like to donate, volunteer or find out more visit www.thefelixproject.org.
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