THE PRINCE OF WALES WILL VISIT SURREY AND WEST LONDON TO SPOTLIGHT ORGANISATIONS DELIVERING IMPACT IN THEIR COMMUNITIES
Thursday 18th April 2024
The Prince of Wales will visit Surrey and west London on Thursday 18th April to spotlight the community and environmental impact organisations in the area are having through their work.
His Royal Highness will first visit Surplus to Supper, a surplus food redistribution charity, where he will see how surplus food from across the local area is delivered, sorted and re-packaged for delivery to small community organisations. The Prince will then visit a youth centre in west London which receives regular deliveries of surplus food from Surplus to Supper, and will hear about how this helps the young people it supports.
Reducing food waste has a considerable number of environmental benefits, including reducing emissions from landfill that contribute to climate change. Protecting the environment for future generations is one of the Prince of Wales’s key priorities and in 2020 he launched The Earthshot Prize, a global environmental prize and platform to discover, award, celebrate and scale groundbreaking solutions to repair and regenerate the planet. In 2021, the City of Milan won an Earthshot Prize in the ‘Build a Waste-Free World’ category for its innovative Food Hubs that collect excess food and distribute it to the communities who need it.
Engagement 1:
The Prince of Wales will visit Surplus to Supper, a surplus food redistribution charity, in Sunbury to learn about its work bridging the gap between food waste and food poverty across Surrey and west London.
Founded in 2017, Surplus to Supper redistributes over three tonnes of surplus food a day to hundreds of local projects such as foodbanks, charities, schools and community organisations.
The charity uses its team of over 200 volunteers to collect food that would otherwise go to landfill from local retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers, and caterers and then redistributes it, ensuring it reaches those most in need. The charity will hit a significant milestone this month, saving the equivalent of three million meals that would have otherwise gone to landfill.
During his visit, the Prince will meet volunteers who sort and deliver food on behalf of the charity and help load this into their vans for transportation to local organisations. His Royal Highness will also join the team of chefs in the kitchen and assist in the preparation of the meals.
Operating seven days a week, volunteers sort and redistribute surplus food at the charity’s hub based at Sunbury Cricket Club. Items include fresh fruit and vegetables, bakery goods, dairy products, meat and fish, store-cupboard items, and frozen foods which will have become surplus for many different reasons, including packaging errors, over-ordering or cosmetic imperfections.
Surplus to Supper also prepares and freezes 25,000 meals each year, distributing them to those in need via foodbanks, charities and community organisations.
Engagement 2:
The Prince of Wales will then visit The Hanworth Centre Hub, a youth centre in Feltham, which provides a range of services to create a safer and better-connected community and receives a regular delivery from Surplus to Supper.
Surplus to Supper delivers to The Hanworth Centre Hub three times a week, which it then serves to young people attending sessions as well as to local families in the form of larger food packages.
The Hanworth Centre Hub offers a safe, welcoming space for young people, some of whom have faced adversity, and supports them to build confidence and new skills for the future. Staff and volunteers run a range of projects each week, including a mental health drop-in session for 16-24-year-olds, where young people take part in creative and fitness activities to support their physical and mental health.
Working closely with local police, the Hub runs sessions specifically designed to support young people who face challenges within mainstream education, as well as sessions for younger children to help keep them safe and learn new skills. The Hub also undertakes outreach work across the local community.
The Hub is based in the same building as a family-run mixed martial arts club, and attendees can access the clubs training area as part of sessions to build their physical strength, mental resilience and self-discipline.
During his visit, the Prince will assist in sorting a delivery from Surplus to Supper before meeting staff and volunteers to hear about the impact the food has on the services they are able to provide.
