With a worsening cost of living crisis and the cold weather approaching, The Felix Project, one of London’s leading food distribution charities, has launched a second Empty Plate Appeal. The appeal will fund meals for London’s hungry for the second year running.
Having worked alongside integrated agency The Maverick Group in 2022, The Felix Project know that thousands in London are facing food insecurity on a weekly basis in the run up to this Christmas. Rising food prices and the on-going cost-of-living situation has created a huge demand for food support that existing funding and resources cannot address. The charity needed to reinvigorate the campaign, to truly make an impact this year.
At its heart, the original campaign was a focus on raising the issue of how many children and families often go without a meal and quite literally find themselves staring at an empty plate. Now the winter appeal builds on this simple, cut-through creative concept with flexible yet hard-hitting messaging, showcasing how just a small donation of £10 can provide 29 plates of food.
Tanya Mitchell, Director of Income Generation and Marketing at The Felix Project, said: “After the phenomenal success of our last campaign, the Empty Plate Emergency Appeal, which provided the equivalent of over 2.4 million meals for hungry Londoners, we’re hopeful that this winter edition will provide even more for those in need. With help from The Maverick Group, we’re hoping to again exceed our targets. Rising food prices and the ongoing squeeze on budgets this year has led to a huge increase in demand for food support. Our campaign will allow us to ramp up our support to feed Londoners and tackle London’s hunger crisis at this critical time.”
Carron Edmonds, Chairwomen and Co-Founder of The Maverick Group said “After seeing the facts from YouGov reports last year, we were appalled to discover the startling stat that over 400,000 children go without a meal every day in London. And on the success of last year’s campaign, the team were even more determined to create something that would provide real impact to this amazing charity. We are delighted at the evolution of the Empty Plate Emergency Appeal, and really hope it can deliver even more than last year. Giving back is something that our industry needs to do more of… and since our agency is London-based, we are always keen to do good here at a local level.”
Beyond delivering much-needed food for the city’s hungry, the first year of the Empty Plate Emergency Appeal has been nominated for nine industry awards including Campaign Purpose, Third Sector Charity, Drum Awards EMEA, Drum Awards for Social Purpose and Marketing Week. Over that campaign period (October 2022 – March 2023) the campaign raised over £545,000 which equates to over 2,450,000 meals for Londoners in need.
The winter appeal is currently running across social media and OOH.
