🍔 Hayley Steere runs Free My Meal, a non-profit charity which helps provide meals for those in need.
🍴 Hayley’s own experiences prompted her to set up the charity in August 2020, as 14 years ago she was struggling to feed her children as a single parent.
💬 Hayley told MyLondon that she felt she couldn’t ask for food when she was struggling:
"It was my pride stopping me. I never used food banks or got free meals because of my pride. I wanted to help people in the same situation I was in."
🧑🍳The charity matches cooks with excess food with those in need of meals.
People post in Facebook groups or on the website detailing their leftover food, and those in need comment anonymously and arrange a way to collect meals that would otherwise be wasted ♻️
🦠Hayley started the charity during the pandemic, as people’s lives were thrown into disarray across the country and the use of food banks became more prevalent.
🧑⚕️Director of NHS London’s Covid response, Martin Machray, said the wellbeing impact was "enormous"
🗨️"People come to work to look after those who need help most. Being abused, hit, physically attacked is completely unacceptable. You can imagine what it does to people’s lives."