The Fishmongers’ Company, together with the Worshipful Company of Drapers and food charity, City Harvest, are working to feed over 200 people who are either homeless or in-need across London every day.
The Livery Kitchen Initiative follows on from the success of the Fishmongers’ Company’s COVID-19 Rapid Response Grant Programme which, as well as providing emergency funding to help fishing businesses diversify and continue to trade during lockdown, also supported restaurants and catering companies to make and distribute meals to those who were shielding or in need of support. The Tolcarne Inn in Newlyn, using seafood purchased with grant funding from the Fishmongers’ Company’s Fisheries Charitable Trust and Seafarers UK, was able to prepare and cook almost 1,700 nutritious meals for the most vulnerable in the community.
With the Company’s ability to hold events at the Hall currently highly constrained by COVID-19 and wanting to put the excellent team of chefs to best use the Company and Worshipful Company of Drapers are cooking up healthy dishes for those who need them most in London. Working with City Harvest, a long-term charitable partner of the Fishmongers’ Company, these meals are donated to eight different London charities who then distribute them to people across the city including the homeless, refugees and low-income families.
Fishmongers’ Executive Head Chef Stefan Pini explained “It is a brilliant initiative; not only that we are able to repurpose the Kitchen during this pandemic and keep the Chef’s cooking, but that we are able to send out 200+ nutritious meals a day to people that are in desperate need at this time. For some this may be the only access to a hot meal they will have that day. We already have a strong working relationship with City Harvest and WC Drapers’ and it is great to use this relationship to support local charities, some that have emerged just to help those in need during this pandemic.”
The project will run throughout the remainder of 2020 and Stefan has a range of recipes in line to keep London’s vulnerable fed and incorporate as much fish and seafood into the meals as possible, using nutritious British seafood to help those who need it most.
© The Fishmongers’ Company 2024
