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How City Harvest addresses and aligns with the UN Sustainable Development Goals

City Harvest – Tackling Poverty Through Food Redistribution.
This month’s piece explores how City Harvest aligns with SDG #1: No Poverty.

In 2015, the World Bank estimated that 736 million people worldwide (10%) lived in extreme poverty, on as little as $1.90 per day. Although down from 804 million back in 1990, the COVID-19 pandemic has undone this progress, forcing 100 million people into poverty. In London, the statistics are just as startling: in 2019/20, 27% or 2.4 million people were living in poverty. Since the pandemic took hold, this figure rose by 10%. The knock on effect? More Londoner’s sought help from the capital’s food redistribution network with food banks experiencing a 128% increase in demand for food packages in the 6 months prior to September 2020, compared to 2019. This equated to an additional 210,000 packages being distributed to people across the capital.

Andrew Mcleay – Ealing Soup Kitchen’s former Manager paints the picture:

“Around the time of the first lockdown, Ealing Soup Kitchen, which remained open, started seeing much larger numbers. Numbers went up from 100 to sometimes 200, 250 in a single session. And it wasn’t just homeless people who were using Soup Kitchens. Families with small children, the elderly, refugees, vulnerable, large families, and working people who couldn’t afford to pay rent and food together were lining up in these queues”

Homeless recipients queue at Ealing Soup Kitchen before Christmas 2021 for a hot meal and essentials.

At City Harvest, this demand was fulfilled by an unprecedented level of donations from businesses with surplus food. In 2020 alone, City Harvest redistributed 7,796,173 meals.

SDG #1 End poverty in all its form everywhere by 2030

Through a network of over 350 charity partners, City Harvest redistributes quality and nutritious food from donors to those most in need in the capital. By providing free access to food, City Harvest can help its recipients to become more financially secure by reducing their food bill. In turn, money once spent on food can be reprioritised and directed towards paying for other necessities, such as clothing and housing. To date, more than £20 million worth of food has been redistributed by City Harvest to Londoners in need.

Help City Harvest Rescue Food, People, and Planet.