Making an impact and tackling food poverty with The Felix Project

4.7 million adults in the UK struggle to afford to eat every day, 2 million children are at risk of missing the next meal. Meanwhile, our food industry generates 3 million tonnes of good, edible surplus food each year. We as an organisation wanted to play our part in alleviating this problem.

As part of our commitment to helping not just our clients, but the wider community, the Penny Group partnered with The Felix Project and took part in two days of corporate volunteering.

The Felix Project, a London based charity, collects fresh, nutritious food that cannot be sold. The surplus food is cooked by in house chefs who create delicious meals from scratch. The meals are packaged and distributed to children and families, adults on low incomes, the unemployed, homeless, refugees, the elderly and domestic abuse survivors on the same day. The Felix Project’s vision is simple, they’re striving for a world where no-one goes hungry and good food is never wasted.

Lorna Mills, Academy and Operations Manager stated “It was a privilege to have been able to volunteer alongside the amazing staff at The Felix Project – they have an impressive set up that runs smoothly to create, package and distribute thousands of meals every day to where they are most needed. Despite the intensity of the pace and the amount of work needed to deliver their promise, the staff were welcoming, friendly and a joy to work with. It was an enjoyable and rewarding experience to be involved!”

Our corporate volunteering lasted over two full days, we were based in The Felix Project’s kitchen and warehouse in Poplar, tasks included:

Taking delivery of food, sorting it by type and date and repackaging based on charities wish lists
Preparing ingredients, portion serving into containers, packing, stacking and getting them ready for delivery

“It was a great experience being able to help out at The Felix Project, I found it rewarding giving back to the local community. Our morning team prepared over 2000 meals for schools and charities (a Felix Project record). I personally had great fun and it’s certainly something I will be doing again in the near future.” – Tom Swindlehurst, Paraplanner at The Penny Group

As a firm we believe in the importance of forming positive relationships with charity organisations that go beyond simply donating money. We found that working with The Felix Project has enabled us to make a difference in our community and develop our mindset as individuals.