LONDON, England — In the United Kingdom alone, millions of pounds of food is wasted every year that could benefit individuals who are dealing with food insecurity.
On Thursday, May 29, Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles toured and learned about the work being done through The Felix Project in London, England. The organization gathers surplus food from suppliers, restaurants, farms and grocery stores in order to redistribute it across the greater London area to individuals and families in need.
Following a tour of one of the group’s four depots spread across the city, Elder Cook said his appreciation for the efforts of the organization had grown.
“I was already impressed with what you were doing, it is even more impressive to see close up,” he said.
Elder Cook thanked the group for what it is doing to alleviate hunger among Heavenly Father’s children in England and the care it takes in doing so.
“The dream and the vision and the concept is incredible and so consistent with anybody who has a desire to feel accountable to God for watching out for people. It is lifesaving,” Elder Cook said.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is working in collaboration with Muslim Aid at The Felix Project to help provide relief to the hungry.
Mustafa Faruqi, chair of trustee board at Muslim Aid, joined Elder Cook at The Felix Project.
“Muslims, like Christians and people from other faiths, practice fasting so that we know what it’s like to feel hungry. And that gives us a great deal of empathy with people who are hungry,” Faruqi said. “I think sometimes it’s the simplest missions that are the most powerful that everybody can unite on, regardless of faith, color or creed or background.”
Having volunteered in the kitchen at The Felix Project the previous week, Faruqi said it felt good to be actively serving and working to help make a difference with others.
“What we can achieve together is greater than what we can do apart,” Faruqi said.
Elder Michael T. Ringwood, a member of the Presidency of the Seventy, and Elder Scott D. Whiting, a General Authority Seventy and president of the Church’s Europe North Area, also visited the depot.
Phil Gray works for The Felix Project and led part of the tour of the facility just north of Canary Wharf. As he explained the process of preparing meals with the ingredients donated to the organization, he said the team works hard to ensure food recipients maintain their personal dignity by receiving meal options that closely match their cultural and religious preferences.
“We don’t send Bengalis macaroni and cheese,” Gray said. He said the team includes multiple chefs who help create recipes based on most-frequently donated food items.
Through the efforts of the Church and Muslim Aid, The Felix Project is working to construct a new depot in Acton Park that may help it deliver up to 12 million meals per year to more than 100,000 people. Some of the Church’s donations came from individuals who contributed at the 2024 Light the World machine locations in London.
Shane Dorsett is the chief operating officer of The Felix Project. He said that collaboration like Elder Whiting explained comes as an answer to the feelings that keep him up at night.
“What used to keep me up at night was how to gather the food that we knew was out there. What keeps me awake at night now is knowing how to distribute it all,” he said.
Preserving food is one way to keep donations from spoiling, and Dorsett said that is one reason staff are looking to expand to a new endeavor called Felix Bakes that will use the most commonly donated food items of potatoes, carrots, bananas and zucchini to bake breads and other items for distribution.
Elder Whiting said he looks forward to future discussions about how the Church’s buildings around London could potentially be used as food distribution points with Church members helping distribute the food as well.
“We are especially excited to get young people involved,” he said. “We see several layers of benefit to this.”
Elder Whiting said that some meetinghouses outside of London are already used for similar purposes and Church members have enjoyed the opportunity to serve in this way to benefit those in their communities.
Sam Rushworth, a member of Parliament from Northeast England, said he appreciates seeing different groups work together to solve a challenge like hunger.
“It doesn’t fall to the government to solve every problem. I don’t think we could,” he said. “We know that in our communities, it is generally the faith organizations and the small community groups that are running food banks.”
