Food for London Now: Foodie family gives one addict a new will to live

New beginning:  mother-of-five Naomi Clucas gets to work in the kitchen with chef Ernest Oparaocha
NIGEL HOWARD ©

Recovering alcohol addicts, former homeless people and those who lost their business as a result of Covid-19 are among the people helping deliver 1,000 meals a day to vulnerable Londoners through our Christmas appeal.  

Early mornings, kitchen scrubs and seasoning meat are all in a day’s work for 38-year-old volunteer Adrian who spends everyday helping out. The kitchen “general” has joined With Compassion, a charity of 450 volunteers who prepare and distribute the campaigns meals from our state-of-the-art trucks.  

He became involved with the organisation, which is using the food supplied by our appeal partner, The Felix Project, in May after spending a year and two months sleeping rough. He said: “I had been self-medicating with weed and booze for more than 20 years. I knew I would be on the streets at some point but I’m grateful I got out of it and hopefully can dodge it for another decade.”

It was in 2019 when Adrian was forced to move to a hostel in Manchester that he tried to take his life — the attempt resulted in a spell at a local mental health institute. “I was suffering from paranoia and depression and once I had to move to Manchester I thought my life was over and I wouldn’t be able to rebuild it again.

“It was only after I ‘escaped’ the hospital and moved back to London to try to take my life again — that didn’t work — that I asked for help.”

He said his life changed in part thanks to With Compassion which he describes as the “family” that gave him encouragement since his support system “vanished in lockdown”. He added: “I used to read the Standard every day when I was homeless so I understand the power of the press — what is being done with the campaign and With Compassion is going to help people and I’m happy to be part of it.”  

Another volunteer, whose catering business went “dead” at the start of the pandemic is mother-of-five Naomi Clucas. She said: “All the events that I had booked for the year ended up getting cancelled — it was hard because I had just started to get a big name for myself.”

The founder of Simply Scrumptious, formerly based in Edgware as a restaurant, volunteers as an onsite co-ordinator for With Compassion, managing the teams who help prepare food.

“I’m just so touched by the amount of people who were willing to help — from those with mental health issues who’ve been positively impacted by the work we do here to those who were homeless and vulnerable, to even barristers and full-time employees like journalists who often come and help when they can,” she told the Standard.  

Ms Clucas, who has secured new work for her business through her volunteering, added: “Having the Evening Standard on board is just amazing — what you guys are doing is just wonderful.”

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