Andrew

Andrew, 60, is the founder of Sutton Community Project in London, which has grown from a small food sharing initiative run from his own porch to a charity offering nutritious food and social opportunities to local people in need of support.

The project first began in 2020, when Andrew and his wife looked for a meaningful way to help people in their community who were struggling during the pandemic. He discovered the food sharing app Olio and started collecting unsold food from local supermarkets and distributing it to his neighbours. In a bid to incorporate more fresh and nutritious food, Andrew and his family successfully secured regular donations from his local greengrocers – and later distributed 70 boxes of fresh vegetables from a local market to celebrate restrictions being lifted!

“We left everything in our porch and before we knew it, we had 140 families coming to collect food regularly! People started chatting and sometimes leaving us homecooked dishes – everyone wanted to give back and everyone had stories to share. Some people no longer had jobs, or experienced huge anxieties during isolation, or had even lost family members.”

Realising he wanted to grow the project and continue bringing people together, Andrew secured a room with adjoining kitchen space in a nearby community centre located in one of the borough’s most deprived areas. After registering as a charity, securing food licensing and officially joining forces with a local Japanese church, Sutton Community Food Project was born!

“From that point, we were able to work with organisations like Neighbourly and the Felix Project to claim more food, on top of donations from local people keen to support us. It’s grown and grown and now we have 150 people a week receiving food from us, with more than 50 volunteers on board making it all happen.”

On top of providing valuable access to nutritious food, social connections have blossomed as a result of people engaging with the project. Volunteers are often service users too, and represent the diverse community of Sutton, which is home to a large number of refugees from Hong Kong and Ukraine. Through their time at the food project, which also offers signposting to local support services, volunteers develop language skills, new friendships and a sense of integration into their community.

“From refugees to people struggling with mental and physical health issues, domestic violence and addiction, some neighbours come here and they’ve given up – they feel they have no hope and that they’re all alone. We see their confidence grow and soon people are chatting away, making cakes for each other and feeling included in society again.”

In 2024, Andrew organised his very first Big Lunch to celebrate the achievements of Sutton Community Project and to recognise the work of his volunteers. On the day, over 200 people came together at a hall in the community centre to share food, listen to live music and have fun. Topping off the day was a spectacular cake centrepiece made by a local pastry chef featuring an edible Big Lunch table with true to life replicas of Andrew and the volunteers keeping this vital project going!

“We wanted to celebrate diversity from all over the world and served everything from Brazilian brigadeiros and Indian samosas to dumplings from Hong Kong, Sri Lankan curries and British apple and rhubarb tart!”