Rupa Huq Visits City Harvest's Expanded Operations
Charity's new base in Acton Business Park four times the size
Rupa Huq with Laura Winningham OBE and new City Harvest CEO David Carter
Local MP Rupa Huq recently paid a visit to Acton-based food charity City Harvest.
She was there to see its expanded operation after a move into expanded premises in Acton Business Park..
City Harvest’s former CEO, Founder and Head of Strategic Partnerships, Laura Winningham OBE, and new CEO David Carter showed the Ealing Central and Acton MP around the new 13,000 square foot operation which is more than four times the size of its former premises.
The charity, which was set up seven years ago, redistributes healthy surplus food to many other charities providing meals to people in need and have so far delivered over 20 million meals via more than 340 charities.
Laura, who received her OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2020, explained that the coronavirus lockdowns have created a dramatic rise in food poverty across London.
As well as those who have lost employment, the necessary closure of community centres which would normally provide meals and a place to socialise has led to many people becoming isolated and lonely.
For some, collecting food parcels has been their only source of contact with the outside world as well as providing life-saving nutrition. Laura said, “Need is growing and we expect this to remain a problem, sadly, for the foreseeable future. Unlocking more surplus food from the supply chain is key to our being able to meet this need.”
City Harvest are always searching for new food sources and in addition to grocers, restaurants and manufacturers they have recently started working directly with farmers relieving them of produce which would otherwise go to waste. David Carter added that “engaging more local businesses which have large quantities of unused food is one of our short term goals.”
City Harvest would like to hear from any business able to donate foodstuffs, ingredients or ready meals. It will arrange collection, making it easy to help out.
Rupa Huq with Laura Winningham OBE and new City Harvest CEO David Carter
The charity was keen to celebrate Volunteers Week. Their dedicated team of almost 2500 volunteers, many of whom have become part of their workforce of 50 permanent staff, have been essential to the success of the business.
Rupa Huq said, “It is shocking that there are hungry people missing meals in one of the wealthiest cities in the world. The volunteers at City Harvest bring fantastic energy and everyone here should be very proud of the incredibly important service they provide.”
More information can be found at www.cityharvest.org.uk or by contacting Andrew McLeay on andrew@cityharvest.org.uk.
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June 16, 2021