Chiswick Book Festival and Cookbook Festival To Support The Felix Project

Charity redistributes surplus food from suppliers to schools

The Chiswick Book Festival and the Cookbook Festival have chosen The Felix Project as their new charity, to be supported at both festivals in Chiswick in September. The Felix Project saves surplus food from suppliers and redistributes it to charities and schools in London, to help reduce waste and relieve food poverty.

It joins two reading charities already supported by the festivals - InterAct Stroke Support, which employs actors to read to stroke payments at Hammersmith Hospital, and Doorstep Library, which brings books to the homes of children in disadvantaged areas of London.

The director of the Chiswick Book Festival, Torin Douglas, said: “We’re delighted to be supporting The Felix Project, a local charity which does terrific work throughout London. Last year, we welcomed the first Cookbook Festival to Chiswick and we wanted to reflect its success in the charities we support. Their team recommended The Felix Project and we thought it was a great choice.”

The charity was founded by Justin Byam Shaw whose son Felix died suddenly of meningitis in 2014. He says: "Felix was full of compassion for those without his advantages and, in early 2015, I was searching for a way to commemorate him. What stuck in my mind was a boys’ football tournament, he’d played in. Felix told me he’d been upset to learn that many of the 10-year-old boys on the opposing team hadn’t had anything to eat that day. ”

Lucy Cufflin, one of the founders of the Cookbook Festival, said: “We are a group of chefs, cookery writers and food editors and we are thrilled to be involved with The Felix Project. As well as raising money, we’ll be producing recipes for healthy meals that can be prepared in schools and other places which receive fruit and vegetables from Felix. And we’ll be working in other ways to spread the word about the great work done by the charity.”

Mary Powys, Head of Fundraising for The Felix Project, said: “The Felix Project is delighted to be the chosen charity for the Chiswick Book Festival and the Cookbook Festival. Our food rescue operation relies on partnerships like this to deliver good food to good causes. This year we aim to deliver enough food for around 5 million meals to more than 280 frontline charities and Schools. The support of these two festivals will help us to achieve this goal”.

The Felix Project is a London-based UK charity set up in 2016 by entrepreneur, Justin Byam Shaw. The charity rescues good food that cannot be sold and would otherwise go to waste. The food is sorted and then delivered to charities that cook meals and prepare food parcels for vulnerable people and to primary schools to distribute to children and their families.

“The Felix Project feels right for the Chiswick Book Festival as well as the Cookbook Festival” said Douglas. “We work closely with schools and one of our nearest, Southfields primary school, receives fruit from Felix, via another group that helps children. One of their team used to spend time searching out cheap fruit for the school but now that person works in the school library!

“Felix also supplies The Upper Room, a charity providing meals for the needy, supported by St Michael & All Angels Church, which runs and hosts the Chiswick Book Festival. And Justin Byam Shaw’s great grandfather was the distinguished artist and teacher (John) Byam Shaw, who set up the Byam Shaw School of Art and created the wonderful illustrations for the ‘Chiswick Shakespeare’, an edition highly sought after by private collectors.”

The Chiswick Book Festival and the Cookbook Festival are community events, which give all their profits to charities, including St Michael & All Angels Church, which runs the Chiswick Book Festival. In January 2019, they donated £3,000 to each of three charities – InterAct Stroke Support, Doorstep Library and RNIB Talking Books, a Festival charity for the past ten years, which is being succeeded by The Felix Project. The charities are given stalls at the Festivals, to raise awareness and attract new volunteers, and The Felix Project will be very visible in Chiswick this year.

The Festivals will take place from September 12th to 16th 2019.

The Felix Project is a London-based UK charity set up in 2016 by entrepreneur, Justin Byam Shaw. More than eight million people in the UK struggle to afford to eat every day , while our food industry generates 100,000 tonnes of edible food waste each year.

They rescue good food that cannot be sold and would otherwise go to waste. This is high-quality and nutritious, including a high proportion of fresh fruit and vegetables, baked goods, salads, meat and fish. They collect or receive food from 165 suppliers, including supermarkets, wholesalers, farms, restaurants and delis.

The charity then sorts and delivers this food to charities that cook meals and prepare food parcels for vulnerable people and to primary schools to distribute to children and their families. This year they will deliver 2,000 tonnes of food to more than 280 London frontline charities and primary schools. This is enough food to make almost five million meals.

The Felix Project has 22 staff, 450 volunteers and a fleet of 20 vans. Every £1 donated to The Felix Project saves about £5 of food.

June 14, 2019