15th July 2025
From the moment food campaigner Leon Aarts posted a request on Facebook, to the time six weeks later when they were making over 5,000 meals a day from Wembley Stadium, a legacy was set in motion. The result is over 4.5million free meals for Londoners since 2020. The initial project came with a series of challenges which Prism helped him overcome.
Days before the COVID lockdown in the UK, Leon posted on Facebook – he needed volunteers and a kitchen so he could use surplus food to cook meals for Londoners. He was aiming to prepare 1,000 meals a day.
“There was already a food crisis before lockdown. The economy wasn’t very good; a lot of people were on week-to-week paying jobs and they’d been laid off. I knew people would go hungry. So I put on Facebook: who’s going to help? And then this avalanche just started, and we grew really quickly.”
Originally a fine dining chef and restaurateur, Leon is now on a mission to build more equitable and sustainable food systems. He’s built many partnerships in this field, and his expertise in diverting surplus food at scale has led to millions of meals being delivered to those in need.
Leon used this experience to set up and run kitchens for refugees in Calais. This is where he first came across Prism, which was supporting different Collective Funds working in the camps.
Focusing on the practical delivery
When he realised he would need help setting up this project, he came straight to Prism through one of his contacts. “They said, we understand what you are trying to do and we can help, and within two or three days it was set up.”
Leon chose to set up as a Collective Fund, which would take a lot of the pressure off him and his team.
“Setting up a charity by yourself. It’s not easy. It takes a long time. You need a board, and you need to do the governance and all that, having Prism behind you meant I could just focus on what I’m good at.” They deal with the invoices. They deal with collecting the money. They tell me if it’s okay when I try to pay for something. It’s really worth it. If I ever wanted started a charity again, I’d come to Prism.”
What were the challenges?
They were cooking meals seven days a week, coordinating hundreds of volunteers, chefs, and drivers, and managing all that accompanies such a challenge in the midst of a pandemic. They set up an initial kitchen but quickly outgrew it. Then the Chair of the FA offered them Wembley Stadium. During the kitchen move, they never stopped cooking.
Though they were using surplus food, and lots of people were giving their time and paying for their own petrol to help transport the food, they needed to raise funds for items that didn’t come up as surplus, like tinned tomatoes and rice. Fundraising under Prism meant they could maximise the impact of every UK donation through the government’s Gift Aid scheme.
It brought the community together, but it was also a hugely stressful and challenging time – managing kitchen and delivery rotas, upholding social distancing, and working so they weren’t breaking the COVID rules. There were more than just the logistical and HR challenges to contend with.
“When someone tried to steal money from us, that was a terrible story. Anna [Josse] and one of your board members helped me with that. They protected me so I could do my work. They made sure that it didn’t happen. Because, during lockdown, lots of great things happened, but we also saw the darker side of humanity at the same time.”
Bringing the community together in a crisis
The way the project was set up under Prism gave Leon space to bring the community together and focus on building partnerships and managing logistics. Leon has won two awards for his work on this project, but he is clear it was never just about him.
“In my own words, I was just the fool that came and put the stake in the ground and said: “this is what we are going to do.” That’s my role in life. I’ve done other things like this in Calais. And then the most beautiful people show up, who are a lot smarter in many, many ways than I am.”
One of the charities that Leon was working closely with over this time was The Felix Project, which provides meals for people in London. They wanted to build a permanent kitchen because this work was still going to be needed after COVID. They asked Leon to get involved so he designed and built the kitchen for them.
“Most of my core team – about 20 people – moved there to work, and in July 2021 we opened Felix’s Kitchen, which brought together Compassion London and The Felix Project. They still work there now, cooking 4,500 meals a day from the surplus food collected by The Felix Project. From March 2020 to this last Christmas, our team made over 4.5 million meals, all for free.”
This year, Prism celebrates 20 years of shaping the future of giving. We have raised over $1 billion for charitable causes around the world, working with changemakers like Leon. If you would like to read more about the other inspiring people and projects we’ve supported, check out our spotlight section here.
