A new charity initiative is launching in West London today to donate more than 400,000 surplus essential goods to 40,000 families in need across the capital over the next 12 months. London’s first Multibank, ‘Felix’s Multibank’, is led by The Felix Project, with support from Amazon, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.
The service will help families experiencing poverty by providing essentials like toiletries, baby products, cleaning goods and bedding donated by Amazon, and other national and regional businesses. It is an expansion of the Multibank network, co-founded by Gordon Brown and Amazon, which has now donated more than 3 million essential goods to help over 400,000 families from Multibanks currently operating in Scotland, Greater Manchester, and Wales.
Felix’s Multibank builds on The Felix Project’s established work rescuing high quality surplus food that would otherwise have gone to waste and redistributing it to vulnerable Londoners through a network of charities, schools and community groups. Distribution partners for Felix’s Multibank include Little Village, Trussell Trust, Lambeth Healthy Living Platform, Surplus to Supper, and St Raphael’s Family Wellbeing Centre.
The project has drawn support from the Mayor of London who has committed £250,000 to help with running costs for the London site. Additional funding has been provided through the Multibank Fund, established with £1 million of seed funding from Amazon and Comic Relief, to help finance the expansion of Multibanks in areas of need across the UK.
Amazon helped to establish the warehouse operations, five Amazon employees will work on-site for the first full year of operation, and the company will provide logistics support to transport the donations to community organisations across London.
The Mayor of London continues to work with The Felix Project as well as the Mayor’s Fund for London to provide free holiday meals to hundreds of thousands of London families. Earlier this year, the Mayor announced a further £4m in funding to continue his programme that has already provided more than 12.3m free meals to families during schools holidays and at weekends.
Charlotte Hill OBE, CEO, The Felix Project, said: “Every day The Felix Project is helping to provide healthy and nutritious meals to people in need across London, but we know it is not just food they want. For those on low incomes all items are a struggle to afford, from toiletries and cleaning products to bedding and other household goods. Thanks to this incredible partnership, Felix’s Multibank will be able to ensure our network of community organisations can provide more of the things people need and just as importantly prevent perfectly usable items from going to waste.”
Gordon Brown, former UK prime minister, said: “As I go round the country, I find too many children growing up in homes without heating, bedrooms without beds, floors without floor coverings, kitchens without kitchen utensils and bathrooms without soap, shampoo or toothpaste. Having gained experience from the benefits to families of our Multibanks in Scotland, the North West of England and Wales we are delighted now to work with The Felix Project who have such a strong reputation for doing good in the capital. Felix’s Multibank will be able to take a holistic view of the overall need of the families they serve and provide some of the non-food basics for those in greatest need across London. We are grateful to the companies and foundations who are supporting the Multibanks and to The Felix Project for joining with us to make the roll out in London possible.”
John Boumphrey, UK country manager, Amazon, said: “Since 2020, we have supported The Felix Project’s mission to fight food waste and hunger with more than 10 million meals, as well vans and drivers to transport food to Londoners in need every week. Through Felix’s Multibank, we will help many more vulnerable families across London by providing surplus essentials from Amazon and other businesses to those who need them most. We’ve already supported more than 400,000 families from our existing Multibanks, giving those experiencing poverty access to the essentials they need while contributing to a more circular economy.”
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “It is shocking that in a city as prosperous as ours so many people are being forced to go without essentials. By funding Felix’s first Multibank in London we will help those who need it most by providing essentials including baby clothes, food and toiletries all in one place. I’m determined to do all I can to make London a city where every young person can thrive and by supporting families we will help build a fairer London for all.”
Jane Hartley, US ambassador to the UK, said: “Lifting up the most vulnerable when they are down, and equipping our children and youth with resources as they grow – these are key elements to our countries’ prosperity. In both the United States and the United Kingdom, the statistics on families experiencing poverty are concerning. We have our work cut out for us, but we are most powerful when we combine the reach of government with the innovation of the private sector. I admire my friends at Amazon, and Gordon Brown, for coming up with local solutions and finding ways to bring the private, non-profit, and public sectors together. Felix’s Multibank is an inspiration for the kind of innovative partnerships we need to see.”
Felix’s Multibank is the fourth Multibank established in the UK by Gordon Brown and Amazon. The first Multibank launched in Fife, Scotland in 2022, followed by a second site in Wigan, Greater Manchester in 2023, and a third in Swansea in March, 2024.
The launch of Felix’s Multibank follows a four-year partnership between Amazon and The Felix Project. Since 2020, Amazon has donated over 10 million meals to help the charity fight hunger in London, and provides drivers and vans to transport food donations across London every week. Earlier this year, Amazon donated £500,000 to fund a new South London depot to help The Felix Project meet increasing levels of food insecurity across London, with the charity expecting to deliver more than 35 million meals in 2024. Employees across Amazon also regularly volunteer in Felix’s depots and kitchens.
