Drawing on the community spirit of our founder Thomas Burberry, this festive season, Burberry is partnering with youth charity, OnSide, to help alleviate the impact of the cost-of-living crisis. Burberry’s support will ensure that young people in the most economically disadvantaged areas can come together in an OnSide Youth Zone this winter, to access food, warmth and community, in a safe and nurturing environment.
As part of OnSide’s Network Winter Hunger Appeal, Burberry will be making a donation that will enable 5000 young people to receive a free cooked meal when attending an OnSide Youth Zone. The donation will also be used to support the charity’s operational expenses, training and guidance, to ensure that all Youth Zones in its national network remain open and supported this winter.
Burberry’s partnership with OnSide marks the beginning of a long-term partnership between the youth charity and The Burberry Foundation, building on Burberry’s belief that creativity opens spaces for the next generation to thrive. OnSide’s Youth Zones offer safe and nurturing spaces for young people from disadvantaged communities, empowering them to explore their creativity and imagination, and develop their potential.
In addition to supporting OnSide, Burberry will also make financial donations to four international food charities around the world. The charities supported by Burberry are longstanding partners FareShare and The Felix Project, as well as Banco Alimentare in Italy and City Harvest in New York.
Caroline Laurie, VP of Corporate Responsibility at Burberry, commented: ‘We are delighted to support food banks across the world this winter and commence our partnership with OnSide through their OnSide Network Winter Hunger Appeal. OnSide and their dedicated team provide vital support to young people and those impacted by the cost of living crisis. Together, we hope that our donation can help the Youth Zones continue to provide a safe and warm environment where young people can access food and support.’
Kathryn Morley, Chief Executive at OnSide, commented: ‘We are incredibly grateful to Burberry for their generous support. At a time when families and communities are facing increased challenges, with the cost of living crisis continuing to bite, this partnership will not only provide thousands of young people with a hot meal at their local Youth Zone this winter, but also enable us to continue to provide vital support to our network of Youth Zones.
OnSide is a UK charity that believes all young people should have the opportunity to discover their passion and their purpose. The charity funds and builds state-of-the-art, multimillion-pound Youth Zones in the country’s most economically disadvantaged areas. It trains the amazing people who run them and offers support through the nationwide OnSide Network, where young people can learn and grow, share and celebrate their successes together.
Youth Zones are brand new, purpose-built spaces fizzing with energy and crammed with incredible facilities. They offer 20 activities each night, including things like football, climbing, media, skating, DJing, drama and employability training, with entry costing just 50p after a £5 membership fee. The Youth Zones are staffed by skilled and dedicated youth workers who truly believe in young people — helping them see what they can achieve, and giving them the skills, confidence and ambition to go for it.
Over 50,000 young people are already OnSide members across a network of 14 Youth Zones, with other Youth Zones currently in development, including Grimsby, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Barnsley.
Each Youth Zone is an independent charity with its own private sector-led board. This model of local ownership is a key factor in ensuring the financial sustainability of each project. Youth Zones provide a way for local communities to actively support young people between the ages of eight and 19 (or up to 25 for those with additional needs).
The Felix Project. It is estimated that 4.7 million adults in the United Kingdom struggle to afford to eat every day, with 2 million children at risk of missing their next meal. Meanwhile, our food industry generates 3 million tonnes of good, surplus food each year. The Felix Project is a London-based food redistribution charity, set up in 2016, that tackles both issues.
The Felix Project rescues good, surplus food from the food industry that cannot be sold and would otherwise go to waste. This is always high quality and nutritious, and includes lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, baked goods, salads, meat and fish. The charity collects or receives food from over 539 suppliers, including supermarkets, wholesalers, farms, restaurants and delis. It then sorts and delivers it to over 1000 frontline charities, primary schools and holiday programmes in London. That way, food that would have gone to waste is reaching vulnerable people, homeless people, people with mental health problems, and those who simply cannot afford to buy healthy food in supermarkets.
The Felix Project believes in vision of a city where no one goes hungry and good food is never wasted. Together, we can win the fight against food waste and hunger in London.
FareShare is the UK’s biggest charity fighting hunger and food waste. It takes good-to-eat surplus food from across the food industry, sorts it in regional warehouses across the UK, and passes it to a network of nearly 9500 charities and community groups. These include food banks and pantries, hostels, refuges, community centres, older people’s lunch clubs, school clubs and hospices. Three quarters of the organisations it works with support children and families. Between 2021 and 2022, FareShare redistributed the equivalent of nearly 130 million meals — that’s four meals every second.
Since 1989, Banco Alimentare has been recovering food surpluses from the entire production and distribution agri-food chain to donate them to over 7600 charitable organizations that ultimately support around 1,600,000 people and families in need throughout Italy. The activity is carried out by 21 regional food banks coordinated by Fondazione Banco Alimentare.
In Italy, according to the official data released by Istat on 2021, there are still 5.6 million people in absolute poverty. The trend is expected to grow due to the growing inflationary pressure, with a consequent increase in logistics costs for the organization.
This is just the latest in a series of challenges Banco Alimentare has faced since the start of the pandemic: the number of people needing support rose steadily (11% increase between 2019 and 2021), and the amount of food to be processed grew too (32% increase between 2019 and 2020, and a further 20% increase between 2020 e 2021). Both of these examples had consequently increased costs for the organisation. Through it all, Banco Alimentare distributed more than 126,000 tonnes of food to 1.6 million people last year, continuing to deliver its impact to the Italian society.
City Harvest is New York’s first and largest food rescue organisation, helping to feed millions of New Yorkers who struggle to put meals on their tables. Over its 40 years serving New Yorkers in need, it has rescued more than one billion pounds of fresh, nutritious food and delivered it, free of charge, to hundreds of food pantries, soup kitchens, community partners and Mobile Markets® across the city. This year, it will rescue and distribute more than 75 million pounds of nutritious food to people in need. City Harvest works alongside community partners to boost community capacity, expand education around nutrition and strengthen local food systems. Since 1982, City Harvest has always been there to feed the city — one day, one meal, one New Yorker at a time.
