Star chef Melissa Hemsley hails 'eye opening' experience of cooking for homeless people for The Felix Project

(L-R) David Morrisey, Damien Conrad (Enfield Depot Coordinator for The Felix Project, Melissa Hemsley and Melek Erdal in the kitchen at SHP Charity in Camden about to serve the meal created from surplus food provided by The Felix Project

Melissa Hemsley led an all-star team in cooking for the homeless and said the experience was “eye opening”.

The celebrity chef used ingredients which would otherwise have gone to waste to design and make a three-course meal for more than 50 residents at a Camden hostel run by charity the Single Homeless Project (SHP).

Ingredients were provided by West London-based The Felix Project, which delivers surplus food donated by supermarkets and other suppliers to more than 200 shelters and projects around the capital for free.

Every day its volunteers redistribute ingredients - over half fresh fruit and vegetables - for around 13,000 meals, including to all 10 SHP outposts.

Hemsley whipped up the feast with Walking Dead star David Morrissey, who has been a long term volunteer making deliveries for The Felix Project, and who recruited the health food chef.

Hemsley said: “Yesterday was eye opening. I already know, because I'm an Evening Standard reader, how valuable the Felix Project is to communities around London, and when I sat next to David Morrissey at a dinner, we instantly got on and started chatting about how the conversation has to change around buying more, buying new and how many of us need to face up to what we waste.

“I was astonished by how great the ingredients that were rescued were. They were perfectly good to eat... In less than three hours, we cooked a three course buffet for 50 people using rescued ingredients that were destined for the bin - aubergines were roasted for a curry (the most popular dish) courgettes, peppers and celery baked for a vegetable pasta sauce, perfectly good broccoli and limp basil turned into a super green pesto, boxes of Pannetone revived and turned into the best bread and butter pudding (thumbs up from an Italian resident) served with slightly soft but still delicious raspberries that were squished with vanilla, and freshly squeezed oranges, served with whipped yoghurt.”

David said: "Working with the Felix Project is such an uplifting experience and has shown how a simple concept can make such a difference to so many people who need help and to the health of our planet.

"Each week we are saving 40 tonnes of edible food from going to waste and distributing this for 70,000 meals.

"Every hour that you volunteer stops another 40kg of food from going to landfill and also ensures that food for another 100 meals is distributed."

The chef said she plans to cook another lunch for The Felix Project, which “about a dozen chefs and food industry friends” have already asked to attend.

SHP Corporate Partnerships Co-ordinator, Tara Carty, said: “With The Felix Project collecting the food and delivering to our hostels we can provide a better standard of food to our residents, getting cooks to think outside the box and be more creative using fresh produce.”

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