We are facing a hunger crisis – we need you to stand with us and help fight it

Help The Hungry: Your support is crucial to making sure people get the food they need at this important time

Looking for a way to commemorate my son Felix, I settled on a simple idea that I felt would appeal to him. Why not try to help solve food poverty by addressing the scandalous level of food waste in the UK?

Food poverty is one thing but real, widespread hunger is quite another. I failed to predict the emerging hunger crisis that faces us today amid the coronavirus crisis: isolated elderly people unable to reach the shops; children suddenly out of school and without the holiday food programmes on which they and their families rely; people abruptly out of work and without any income to pay their food bills.

And then there are the health workers struggling to find fresh food when they come off shift. London is the epicentre of this hunger crisis.

We started the Felix Project four years ago this month. Since then we have become the largest food redistribution organisation in London. Last year we delivered 10 tons a day of surplus food to charities and schools across the city every day.

This year we expect this number will nearly double.

The Independent has been at the centre of this success. The Food for London campaign in 2016 helped launch The Felix Project. As a result, many of our volunteer drivers and depot workers are Independent readers, as are our food suppliers and financial supporters.

Now we are urgently gearing up to meet this new emergency with a lot more food.

So we are asking for your help again at a time of crisis. Just £10 will provide enough food for 55 meals for people in real distress.

I know you will stand with us again. Britain is a great country and the generosity of Britons is what makes it so.

Justin Byam Shaw is the founder of the Felix Project and a shareholder in, and former chairperson of, The Independent