Our Help The Hungry appeal has raised more than £10m – thank you for all your support

Editorial: It is an awesome sum and will make a huge difference to families, and particularly children, who too often have to go without

Our Help The Hungry van arrives at Ringcross Community Centre last month to help feed those in need (Lucy Young)

Christmas is the traditional time to think of others, to give, and to offer thanks. So it is entirely appropriate for The Independent to thank its readers for their support in this year’s Help The Hungry appeal – and specifically for the £10m you have helped to raise. It is an awesome sum and, as the many stories we have run illustrate, will make a huge difference to families, and particularly children, who too often have to go without.  

In March, as the terrifying scale of the coronavirus pandemic was becoming clear, The Independent and its sibling title the Evening Standard identified food poverty as one of the key challenges that would emerge. Or rather, the intensification of food poverty, which has been a social evil for so long, and stubbornly persists even as society has grown richer.

Partnering with The Felix Project, a relatively new charity, we have sought to not only deliver food to places where it can be distributed effectively, but to deliver food that is fresh and nutritious. The impact of the campaign has been remarkable. In February, The Felix Project distributed 20,000 meals per day; now it delivers 100,000 per day.