City Harvest Makes Call for Donations and Volunteers
Cost-of-living crisis has increased demand for Acton-based charity's services
Left to right: City Harvest London CEO Sarah Calcutt and Holy Moly’s co-founder Tom Walker, head of sales Tom Coen and senior category manager Adrienne Hudson
March 9, 2023
Acton-based food rescue depot City Harvest is calling for more food donations and volunteers from the business sector as the lines of people waiting for a food parcel or hot meal grow longer.
The continuing cost of living crisis means more and more people across London are going without food and the charity delivers free surplus food to families making the desperate decision between heating their homes and feeding their families.
The organisation is designated as a B Corp which indicates that it has an ethical way of doing business (environmentally conscious, carbon neutral, committed to reducing its impact on the environment to be socially responsible).
It provides enough food for over one million free, nutritious meals every month across the capital, and this March, it is calling for more volunteers as London’s food bank crisis escalates. Its volunteer network already amounts to 12 full-time members of staff but the charity desperately needs more help to cope with growing demand, particularly from the business sector.
One such company to get involved is Milton Keynes-based dip company Holy Moly. Themselves a B Corp who gained their accreditation last November, they visited on 28 February for one of their regular volunteering sessions to help pack food. They also do a grocery shop once a month and donate it to City Harvest plus donate excess dips and other food from their Milton-Keynes base.
To date Holy Moly has rescued 10.8 tonnes of surplus food waste and redirected it to City Harvest, delivered over 25,000 meals, prevented over 40 tonnes of CO2 and delivered 672kg of meals.
“One of our key pillars is to reduce food waste, through our manufacturing and where we make our dips” explains co-founder Tom Walker. “We started working with City Harvest as they share the same goals as us in terms of finding well needed homes for what otherwise would go to waste.”
Sarah Calcutt from City Harvest added, “It’s fantastic to kick off B-Corp month with another volunteer day with Holy Moly. Their contributions are critical to our work”.
City Harvest was founded in 2014, forming London's first food redistribution charity.
City Harvest vans cover greater London and beyond, delivering free surplus food to families making the desperate decision between heating their homes and feeding their families. Their 375+ partner charities include food banks, schools, hostels, soup kitchens, community centres, faith groups, and refuges.
You can find out more about how you can support the food redistribution charity by clicking here.
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