How David Walliams lent his voice to Ivy restaurant tycoon’s war on child hunger
HIS bestselling books have nour- ished the imaginations of countless youngsters – and now David Walliams is lending his voice to help end child hunger.
The TV star and author is backing a campaign by restaurant tycoon Richard Caring to serve thousands of nutritious meals to Britain’s most deprived children every month.
The Food From The Heart campaign, set up by the Caring Family Foundation, ensured that 80,000 free meals were delivered to needy children last month alone.
Britain’s Got Talent judge Walliams, who shot to fame on the irreverent BBC sketch show Little Britain, has narrated an animated film that highlights the plight of children living in poverty and the help available from the campaign.
Walliams, 49, who has a sevenyear-old-son Alfred with model exwife Lara Stone, said he was moved to join the campaign after learning of the huge numbers of families affected by deprivation in Britain.
‘As a father myself, I am absolutely shocked by the growing statistics of child poverty in the UK,’ he said. ‘There are 500,000 children living in poverty in London and over 4.2 million children living in poverty across the entire country.’
He said the Food From The Heart campaign, which works with the charities FareShare and The Felix Project, ‘is committed to providing hot nutritious meals to children who need it most’.
Mr Caring, owner of The Ivy restaurants, and his wife Patricia, who founded The Caring Family Foundation together, said they wanted to make a difference to the lives of children in poverty across the UK.
The nutritious meals are created and cooked by volunteer chefs from Mr Caring’s hospitality business empire, which also includes the Bill’s restaurant chain, top-end London restaurants Scott’s, Le Caprice and J. Sheekey and the famous Annabel’s private members club.
A range of healthy choices, including vegan and vegetarian options, are prepared fresh and then frozen in facilities across the UK.
They are then delivered to children identified as being most in need in a nationwide survey by FareShare, the country’s largest food distribution charity.
Mrs Caring said: ‘As a mother of three young children, it is so important that we are doing everything we can to help children who are going hungry and make a positive impact on some of the devastating statistics surrounding child poverty.’
According to figures cited by the campaign, more than a third of London children are living in poverty – but in 2019, only 16.9 per cent of those attending nursery, primary and secondary state schools were claiming free school meals.
The philanthropist couple said the campaign – backed by Mr Walliams, a multi-million-selling author since his 2008 debut novel The Boy In The Dress – is intended to make up that shortfall. It follows the success of Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford in raising the issue of children’s food poverty.