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 1.2 million meals a month, the need continues to rise as the cost of living tightens its grip. City Harvest has sites in west and south London, and a fleet of vehicles that can be spotted delivering and rescuing food around London and beyond.

Our mission

To reduce food poverty and protect the planet by diverting nutritious food from waste to those in need.

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

City Harvest starts collecting from Nandos & Whole Food Market

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
October – City Harvest Festival campaign

2020

March – City Harvest’s New Spitalfields Market site opens
Lockdown – City Harvest triples in food distributed overnight supporting the hospitality industry save food from going to waste
April – Crystal Palace FC partnership
May – The Savoy kitchens cook meals
June – BBC Earth films at City Harvest
June – Wimbledon ALETC partners with City Harvest
September – Livery Kitchen Initiative launches – cooking meals
October – City Harvest Festival campaign
October – Laura Winningham receives OBE for COVID’s unsung heroes

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
October – City Harvest Festival campaign
November – Lord Mayor’s Show
The Big Give Christmas campaign: Feed a London Child

2022

July – 1st special edition van for The Platinum Jubilee for The Vintners
October – Orange special edition van, Rabobank
November – London Lions Basketball partnership
December – Navy special edition van, Artemis
December – The Big Give Christmas campaign: Feed a London Child

2023

March – The Lord Mayor launches the Livery Food Initiative special edition van at Mansion House
April – London Lions Basketball match Copperbox – launch of EQUALS campign
July – Launched our first People Report: What is Holiday Hunger?
October – Harvest Festival at St Paul’s Cathedral with launch of Food Report: Food for Thought: Unlocking the Economic and Social Benefits of Food Redistribution
December – Old Vic partners with City Harvest for A Christmas Carol
The Big Give Christmas campaign: Feed a London Child

2024

March – Launched the Planet Report The Green Advantage: Leveraging Sustainability Reporting for Better Business
March – Launched the new 7.5t Livery Food Initiative truck
April – City Harvest hosts its first Food Council Conference. Assembling ambassadors and supporters of the Food Charity to discuss progress, projects and plans.
May – 60 million meals delivered to date to City Harvest food charity’s London community partners.
July – City Harvest publishes its second People Report. Nourish to Flourish: How Food Boosts Mental, Physical and Community Health.
NEW City Harvest Chair appointed: Paul Freeston
City Harvest wins at UK Content Awards for ‘Best Content Series’ (The Office) + ‘Best use of AI in a Content Campaign’
September – City Harvest launches new 26-tonne truck to rescue more surplus produce.
October – City Harvest Festival 2024 at Southwark Cathedral.
City Harvest and partner Thomas Franks break GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™️ title for ‘Most ready-made meals prepared in 24 hours’.
City Harvest publishes its second Food Report at Pixel Artworks on World Food Day.
City Harvest hosts a World Food Day Panel to discuss Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger at Mansion House with Lord Mayor.
November – City Harvest moves into Arch 5 at New Covent Garden Market, Nine Elms.
City Harvest is awarded the Investing in Volunteers accreditation. Volunteer with us.

2025

January – City Harvest’s New Covent Garden Market site is completed at Arch 5, funded by the Livery Food Initiative.
February – Food Waste Action Week: City Harvest Art Auction
March – Wimbledon Foundation presents ‘Champions of Merton & Wandsworth’ portrait exhibition, featuring City Harvest driver, Marvin.
City Harvest at Royal Ascot Charity Race Day.
April – The Livery Food Initiative visit their funded City Harvest site at New Covent Garden Market.
May – Hackney Half 2025: team City Harvest take on the half marathon as well as Merchant Gourmet’s “Runner Beans” and other brilliant runners.
British Tennis star, Cameron Norrie supports City Harvest during the LTA HSBC Championships.
June – City Harvest receives support from DEFRA to support its farm gate surplus rescue campaign: Harvest for Hunger.
City Harvest premieres debut documentary, “The New Normal” at ActOne cinema for a community screening.
‘The New Normal: Defining Food Poverty” conference at Drapers Hall.
July – Uber Eats ‘meal deal’ pop-up with Fallow in support of City Harvest.
August – Portrait Series Shoot: “Driven to Serve” featuring City Harvest staff and community partners.
September – City Harvest Gleaning programme at Loddington Farm to rescue surplus apples.
October – National Harvest Festival Service at Westminster Abbey in collaboration with Love British Food, City Harvest, and our fellow food charities. Attended by HM The Queen.
160+ schools & organisations take part in our big City Harvest Festival food drive, collecting over 17 tonnes of food.
City Harvest: Part of the Fabric of London
Acton Central Station mosaic roundel mural is unveiled by Arriva Rail and artist Maud Milton, featuring the tiles of City Harvest staff & volunteers. Learn more here.
Livery Food Initiative Celebration Event to mark the end of three years of vital support.
November – ACT Gala Dinner raises money for City Harvest and is supported by City Harvest staff & volunteers.
Planet Organic celebrates 30 years by donating 30,000 meals to City Harvest via its smoothie & juice initiative.
City Harvest supports Diwali Basket Brigade, sharing 1,700 hampers with north west London communities.
December – City Harvest takes part in Big Give Christmas Challenge match funding campaign
City Harvest’s Shelaine, shares her story in The Standard as part of its Winter Campaign with Comic Relief & Sainsbury’s. Read here.
City Harvest foodies: Share their festive family recipes with Sainsbury’s for “Twelve Recipes of Christmas” as part of Comic Relief partnership, “Meals Make Memories”. Get them here.

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