Our vision
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School Holiday Hunger
No child should ever miss a meal
Freedom from hunger is a human right. All young Londoners need good, fresh food, whatever their circumstances.
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Every child deserves the best start in life. Feed London’s work addresses poverty directly and we also actively fight for changes in the law to achieve fairness and real equality.
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How Feed London began
The school holidays is a time when many families are stretched to breaking point, but Christmas 2020 was even more challenging than most. Feed London was launched by the charity Miracles in December 2020 to meet the huge spike in poverty caused by the pandemic and lockdown.
The idea of providing food boxes at the start of the school holidays came out of conversations with our community referral partners, as well as discussion with families we were already supporting through our food voucher scheme. We also looked at recent research on the pandemic’s impact on children’s access to food.
Many people had lost their jobs, children no longer had access to school meals and available state benefits represented just a fraction of what people needed to survive.
We identified the need to provide support at the start of the school holidays. Our Christmas initiative reached over 280 children and their families, all targeted at the five London boroughs with the highest rates of child poverty. Each family received a Feed London Christmas Food Box packed with fresh food and tasty recipes.
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Our values
Safeguarding – we take great care to keep the children and vulnerable adults we support safe. We have in place a robust child protection plan and all Miracles employees and key volunteers are DBS cleared.
Inclusiveness – our support is without prejudice. We support children and their families irrespective of their race, religion, gender, age, location or political affiliation.
Participation – we value and encourage the contribution of volunteers, community members and organisations and strive to support all contributors to our work in a positive and inclusive manner.
Professionalism – We commit to a very high standard of work in all our endeavours and expect the same level of professionalism from all our partners. This ensure our work best serves those in most need.
About Miracles
Miracles is a UK charity that was launched in October 1994 during the height of the Bosnia-Herzegovina war (92-95) when our founder, Theo Ellert, was taking humanitarian aid to civilians caught up in the conflict.
Since then, Miracles has grown to work extensively across the UK supporting children and their families living in poverty and facing moments of crisis.
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family stories
Robert’s family is struggling with low income, disabilities and complications from Covid-19
Robert, who is 19, has recently been discharged from hospital after treatment for Covid 19. He and his family were referred to us by Royal London Hospital.
Both Robert and his sister Georgie, who is ten, have a diagnosis of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and are full time wheelchair users. The youngest child also has a disability.
There are problems with damp in the home and this is affecting their mother and other members of the family with worsening asthma symptoms.
The family receive no additional help.
Since contracting Covid 19 Robert has been severely affected by this both emotionally & physically needing additional care & support. The last few months have been exceptionally traumatic for the family.
Life has been just so difficult for this family. Having a Feed London food box delivered was one of the exciting most things Robert and Georgie had had in some considerable time. Watching their excitement as they tore open the boxes was wonderful – Georgina was laughing and said it’s like Christmas day.
It can be hard to imagine the everyday fear real of poverty, the lack of opportunity for even the simple things in life. Having your children seriously ill at the same time is just crushing. One mother described it as like having a sliver of ice permanently stuck in her heart – always present, always there, always painful.
At least for one long week over the holidays they don’t have to worry about food – with a voucher that week can extend into three.
