Big Heart Food Hub now aims to distribute 10,000 tonnes of food a week to struggling people in the borough, reports Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter
A new scheme to distribute 10,000 tonnes of food a week to struggling people in one of London’s poorest boroughs has launched.
It comes after revelations that as much as a quarter of people in Barking and Dagenham borough had gone a day without eating because they can’t afford food.
David Goodfellow, one of the project’s organisers, said it would be “the biggest food distribution hub in East London”.
The Big Heart Food Hub aims to bring together charities to distribute surplus and food to foodbanks across Barking and Dagenham. The project opened with a launch event in Thames View, Barking, today (Thursday 10th).
Organisations and charities involved include the Kindness Offensive and The Felix Project, which redistributes surplus food from companies such as supermarkets and restaurants.
Goodfellow, a founder of the Kindness Offensive, told the launch event of his own experience with poverty as a child. He said he and his dad had needed to ask their greengrocer for food that would otherwise be thrown away.
He said: “I know first-hand how challenging it can be to do something seemingly as simple as put food on the table.”
Barking and Dagenham Council is supporting the project, including by hosting the hub in a council-owned warehouse and paying to fit it out, and by co-ordinating the organisations involved.
The Labour-run council’s deputy leader Saima Ashraf joined the launch event and took part in its ribbon-cutting ceremony.
She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) the project was “absolutely brilliant”.
Cllr Ashraf said: “Putting myself in the shoes of a resident – what they go through with the cost of living, the challenges of life. It gives them that respite.”
Recent council figures suggest that around a quarter of people in Barking and Dagenham have gone a day without food.
A council cost-of-living survey found 26.4% of residents had not eaten for at least one day since between April and September last year “because they couldn’t afford or access food”.
It also found 48.7% had eaten less or skipped meals, an 29.7% had been hungry but not eaten for the same reason between June and September last year.
Councillors discussed the figures yesterday (Wednesday 9th) at a meeting of the overview and scrutiny committee.
Green group leader Moin Quadri said the council was offering a “crisis response” but no “long-term solution”.
Cllr Ashraf told the LDRS that addressing poverty required several long term measures.
She said: “There is far more that needs to be done – things are not perfect. We need more employability, we need to help people skill up.
“If you want people to do well you also need to give them everything along with it – you need to give them good housing, you need to give them the skills, you need to give them the employability.
“All this is not going to happen with a click of the fingers.”
