Crown star Emma Corrin hails Food For London Now: This appeal will make an incredible difference

The actress, who plays the Princess of Wales in the hit TV series, sees at first hand the need on the streets as she serves meals for Food For London Now 

The Crown’s Emma Corrin praised “the incredible difference” our food is making to the lives of London’s vulnerable as she helped launch the Evening Standard’s Christmas appeal.

Corrin, who plays Princess Diana in the new season of the Netflix hit, joined our volunteers at the Ringcross Community Centre Food Bank in north London, where more than 100 people were queuing for food.

Lindsey Wylie, the founder of the Alexandra Wylie Tower Foundation which manages the food bank, said: “We used to be a surplus food bank that served around 15 families, then Covid arrived. Now we have 120-150 people.”

“Standing in a queue for two hours for a food bank is a very difficult experience, especially for people finding themselves in this position for the first time. But I’ve never seen the crowd as happy as today”.

The visit marked the first time the Standard’s state-of-the-art food truck was deployed to distribute free hot meals to Londoners suffering from food insecurity.  

Katie Catt, 41, a client of the food bank who also volunteers there, lost her job as a property manager at Moreland Estate Management at the start of lockdown. She used to make £40,000 per year and is now struggling as a single mother to support her three-year-old son while on universal credit.

“I’m going for interviews, but I’m one of 100 people going for each job,” she said — explaining that she suffered with depression after becoming unemployed. Without support from the food bank, how would I support my son?”

Also queuing up for a hot meal was Abdul, who was there to collect food for his neighbours in his apartment block, who are unable to leave home. “I support 12-16 people. Without this food they would have struggled,” he said.

Emma Corrin helps Evening Standard's Food For London Now Campaign

Emma Corrin helps Evening Standard's Food For London Now Campaign
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The Standard’s food truck is distributing free hot meals to London’s vulnerable and the organisations that help them until Christmas. The food is prepared by our charity partner With Compassion, and the truck is supplied by Food Truck Masters, which runs the Together19 Street Vendor initiative.

With Compassion cooked from the kitchens of Wembley Stadium and Alexandra Palace using ingredients from The Felix Project. Its founder, Leon Aarts, also started a charity that fed refugees in the Calais Jungle.

Let’s Feed London Now

This November and December, together with our sister title The Independent, we will be delivering food directly to 1,000 Londoners a day through our partner With Compassion. Please donate here to help ensure no Londoner goes hungry this Christmas

“I have pictures of Lady Diana all over my flat,” Tempesta Vittorio, an 86-year-old pensioner who lives alone in Islington, told Corrin admiringly. “You’ve probably got more than me!” the actress responded.

Corrin said: “I’ve become increasingly aware of the depth of the hunger crisis in London throughout lockdown. Campaigns like this are so important at the moment. Serving 15 million meals during lockdown and aiming to do 100 million per year by 2024 is just incredible.

“In terms of what Food For London Now is doing, it’s making an incredible difference. If you have time, which we all have lots of at the moment, then contact them and see how you can help.”

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