“When I’m delivering food, I feel like I’m a superhero. For some families that know what you do, you are a superhero.”

“I see myself like an emergency service, almost like an ambulance, fire brigade or police. It’s like we are policing hunger, and we need to be out there no matter what.”

Jose is the kind of person who finds joy in everything. Born in Brazil, he says his positivity comes from his father, his lifelong hero and biggest inspiration. Jose has been delivering food, for free, across London for City Harvest, a funded partner of Comic Relief, since 2021. When Jose arrives with the food deliveries, he brings laughter, positivity, and a smile to people’s faces.  Jose isn’t just delivering food, he’s delivering joy and warmth to people who need it – and he is very proud to be part of something that is making a big difference across London.

“I’m a driver at City Harvest for the last six years. My job is to make sure that I get the food exactly to food banks all around. To get it to people who need it.”

“On a typical day, we do eight big drops to food banks. Each food bank will provide for 1,500 people a week.”

Jose’s day starts in the warehouse – he explains, “we come here straight away, check the vehicles, and then we separate, process all the food, make sure that it’s ready to be loaded, grab all everything, and hit the road. It’s straight to food banks, hostels and so on.”

Jose sees firsthand the food insecurity crisis taking place across London. He explains, “the situation is getting worse – food banks are demanding more food because more families are signing up with them. A long time ago, people didn’t want to queue up, but now they don’t really have a choice.” 

“When we pull up at the food banks, you see queues going two blocks away. It’s raining. It’s cold, and these people are still there waiting. And mind you, it’s going to be open in an hour or a couple of hours. Sometimes there are kids there because it’s half term.”

“The food situation in London right now, and I believe the whole UK, it is an emergency. It’s really bad.”

The demand for the services of City Harvest continues to grow. “It’s always more people. The demand is crazy. Sometimes we can’t keep up with everything. We have to serve over 350 charities a week.”

The work that Jose does at City Harvest is an emergency service. Without his support, people would continue to go hungry. “I see myself like an emergency service, almost like an ambulance, fire brigade or police. It’s like we are policing hunger, and we need to be out there no matter what.”

With his food deliveries, Jose brings laughter, positivity, and joy to the communities that he serves. Jose describes how doing this work makes him feel like a superhero to families in need. “After dropping the food, I can get to my van, close the door, and look into the mirror and see the queues, and I know that you guys are going to be all right today. That’s the joy. That’s the time I become really happy.”

“At the end of the day, It’s a relief. It’s a relief that you know that those families, at least for today, they are okay until next week when I see them again.”

Doing this job puts things into perspective for Jose, makes him thankful every day for what he has.  He is so proud to do this work, to be able to provide to people who need it.

 “I don’t see it like a job. I am so proud to be here. I feel so honoured to be here, knowing that I’m part of something huge, helping people in need. And I see those faces out there, and that makes me keep going every time.”