PM’S accolade for Belfast food bank hero Edmund
Johnson honours driving force behind charity providing meals for city’s vulnerable
A Kind-hearted volunteer who is providing more than 300 Christmas dinners to people in Belfast tomorrow has been honoured by Boris Johnson.
Edmund Aruofor (60) moved to the city from London in 2015 to work as a missionary, setting up Lifehub NI in 2017 as a way to help vulnerable people access healthy food.
Waking at 4.30am every day, he runs the project entirely with volunteers and drives more than 14,000 miles a year to collect surplus fresh food from supermarkets and suppliers that would otherwise go to waste.
Since the start of the pandemic the hub has been providing more than 4,000 people with fresh produce.
This includes more than 400 food parcels delivered every week to those self-isolating.
In recognition of his tireless determination to help others, he has now been given the Prime Minister’s Points of Light award.
In a personal letter to Edmund, the Prime Minister said: “Christmas Day will be different this year and so it is particularly special that you and your team of volunteers will spend today serving up hundreds of meals to those in need.
“I know you do this with no thought of recognition, but let me thank you for the extraordinary way in which you have responded to this pandemic, bringing food, Christmas gifts and some much needed joy to those you help.
“The Christmas story is one of hope and renewal and you bring that hope to the people of Belfast with the care and compassion you have shown this year.”
Edmund said he was equally surprised and delighted to get the Prime Minister’s recognition, but that his work highlighted the stark reality of food poverty.
“I’ve been doing this for three years, it didn’t just start because of Covid, but it has definitely grown because of it,” he said.
While volunteering at a food bank, he said he felt compelled to act when one man told him he didn’t remember the last time he ate fresh fruit.
“I just thought I would never hear somebody say that. I didn’t think the food bank model was wrong, but I just felt determined to bring fresh fruit to people’s children instead of j ust the tinned stuff,” he added.
He said his mission became clear after learning how much fresh food supermarkets disposed of every week.
“I was determined that I was going to do it. I was working parttime as an administrator in my church, and very early on I had to quit because I knew it would be a full-time commitment to get this to work,” he said.
His schedule sounds exhausting, waking early to work an 80hour week involving driving for thousands of miles.
“You have to make a decision in your mind first of all about what you want to do. I turned 60 this year, I can’t tell you what that’s supposed to feel like. I’m excited about what I have to do. I see it as an honour and a privilege to look after people in ways that are selfless to me,” he added.
He said the true extent of food poverty was shocking.
“Let’s start with the children. You hear about stunted growth, rotten teeth, diabetes and malnourishment. All of those things are prevalent,” he said.
Others who struggle include working families unable to afford a nourishing diet, asylum seekers and refugees, as well as those living with addiction issues.
Before t he pandemic Edmund said his group was helping around 86 families a week.
“Then there was a period in March we actually peaked at looking after 1,086 families in a seven-day period,” he said.
Yesterday the group took delivery of 360 Christmas dinners to give away in west Belfast.
“The sad reality is our leaders have forgotten what a politician is supposed to be,” he said.
“The whole idea is for them to look out for us, create laws and concepts that look out for us and protect us. They are so far removed from the reality of humanity that they don’t understand this problem at all.”
‘The Christmas story is one of hope and renewal and you bring that hope to the people of Belfast with your care and compassion’