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About City Harvest

Rescuing food, people, and planet

What we do

Est. 2014, City Harvest London food charity rescues nutritious surplus food from farms, manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers, and delivers it, for free, to over 130,000 people a week via organisations feeding those facing food poverty. City Harvest rescues food, people, and the planet by diverting food waste, providing life-changing support to communities across London through food, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from waste.  

City Harvest vans deliver to food banks, homeless shelters, hostels, soup kitchens, mental health charities, projects supporting the elderly and socially isolated, social pantries, community kitchens, refugee hostels, schools and nurseries, family centres and domestic abuse refuges.   

 Now distributing free food for more than 1.3 million meals a month, the need continues to rise as the cost of living tightens its grip. City Harvest has sites in west, east and south London, and a fleet of vehicles that cover the whole of the UK rescuing food.

Our mission & vision

Our Mission – To reduce food insecurity and protect the planet by diverting quality, nutritious, edible surplus food from waste and redistributing it to those facing food poverty.

Our Vision – Cities where all people have access to fresh, nourishing food and no good food is wasted from within the food supply chain.

How we started

City Harvest was founded in 2014 by a small group of people in west London, who came together to address food waste and food poverty in the capital, forming London’s first food redistribution charity. 

2014

Co-founded by Laura & Steve Winningham

2015

  • Charlie Bigham donated money for our first van.
  • Mike Motl first paid employee. 
  • Started collecting from NCGM

2016

  • M&S partnership. FSA freezer trial. – ready meals end of day freeze down. Using Belazu freezer + fridge space
  • Start collecting from Pinewood Studios 
  • Deliveries expand to east London

2017

Moved into Acton Industrial Estate

  • ITV – Gino D’Acampo films 3 millionth meal delivered
  • June – Grenfell – City Harvest is a first responder bringing supplies and working with Leiths to store donations to support victims without food access.

2019

  • May – City Harvest wins Silver Medal at Chelsea Flower Show for sustainable garden

  • May – The Grocers Gala dinner 5 million meals in 5 years

  • June – Metallica presents a cheque on stage at Twickenham

  • July – reaches 6 million meals

  • September – City Harvest green plaque awards begin

2020

2021

  • February – Laura Winningham – City Food Lecture
  • March – Harvest for Hunger launches
  • April – Expand to bigger depot
  • May – 20 millionth meal delivered
  • July – City Harvest Food Council launches
  • October – Rebrand: Rescuing Food, People & Planet
  • November – Lord Mayor’s Show

2022

2023

2024

Our Values

City Harvest Values

Our values sit at the heart of what we do and guide how we do things. They inform our ways of working, the decisions we make, the behaviours we champion and how the organisation should feel. We are proud that they have been shaped collectively by our community – our staff, our volunteers, our trustees and our charity partners.

To bring our values to life, we move beyond words and into action:

Community-focused:

We believe in the spirit of community.
Every day this means we:

  • Are committed to supporting our charities connect communities through food.
  • Will nurture an inclusive and supportive community within our workspace.

Aspiring:

We are driven to achieve more, making a difference to families and individuals around us.
Every day this means we:

  • Strive for continuous improvement, finding better ways of doing things.
  • Aim for excellence and quality in all that we do.

Collaborative:

We are stronger as a team – friendship and camaraderie are important to us.
Every day this means we:

  • Take time to talk and listen to each other and problem solve together.
  • Share knowledge and learn from one another.

Compassionate:

We are united in our commitment to help and support others.
Every day this means we:

  • Act with kindness, treating people with fairness and respect.
  • Are considerate of different needs and circumstances.
City Harvest food charity

Trustworthy:

We are honest and accountable.
Every day this means we:

  • Act with integrity and transparency.
  • Recognise that we won’t always get it right, but we will own our mistakes and take the opportunity to learn from them.

How we do it

Who we support

City Harvest puts surplus food to good use in a sustainable way by delivering free food for over 1.2 million meals a month to 375+ charities, including; children’s programmes, food banks, refuges for women fleeing domestic violence and families fleeing war-torn countries, and local groups across London welcoming the elderly and isolated.

London Depots

Our geographic presence ensures we reach London’s most deprived areas with the most nutritious food possible. Acton is home to our 13,000 sf. HQ depot with easy access to many food manufacturers and distributors. City Harvest has an East London strategic satellite site in New Spitalfields Market providing access to large volumes of fresh produce.

Social Impact for Stakeholders - SROI

As a sustainable solution, City Harvest and its partners proudly join together to generate positive social impact, supporting those most in need and rescuing food, people, and the planet. Every £1 donated generates £12 in social return.

Corporate Engagement

By donating food, funding, skills and valuable volunteering time, businesses throughout the UK, including a growing number of B Corps, nourish thousands of people in their local communities and prevent climate change.

We Align with 9 SDGs

City Harvest’s food rescue model addresses 9 of the 17 goals. City Harvest is a key driver in community engagement as we help our corporate partners and food donors extend their efforts to tackle the SDGs via our sustainable solution to ending hunger and waste.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

Keep our vans rolling

By supporting us financially and making a donation you can help us to feed families in desperate need.

Please help if you can.

Donate