Furloughed professional chef supports St George's Staff with over 1,000 meals

A professional chef who was furloughed during Spring last year has supported St George's Staff with over 1000 meals throughout the pandemic.

Feed the Nation is a community program led by furloughed professional chef Shannon McAuliffe.

Feed the Nation collaborated with Plan Zheroes to fundraise, source food donations, secure professional kitchen space and find volunteer drivers so Chef Shan could cook hundreds of meals every week.

The meals were initially donated to front-line charities who were experiencing a surge in people in sudden and urgent need of food/shelter.

However, they soon extended the free meals out to NHS Trusts, in recognition of the incredible work by everyone in the healthcare setting.

During this time, they cooked and sent out 700 meals to St George's over 7 weeks, with a few added extras here and there.

Then, in January, alongside the relaunch of the St George's COVID appeal, they got back in touch and have continued to deliver great quality, fresh, healthy meals to St George's twice a week.

During this time they have delivered a further 355 freshly cooked, healthy meals to St George's.

Dee Vadukul, business development manager at Plan Z Heores said:

"This is just a small way of saying a big thank you to one of our local NHS Trusts for managing the pandemic as well as you have."

At St George's Hospital Charity we cannot thank you all enough for your incredible support for our staff at St George's.

The meals have provided a way for staff to access fresh, healthy food during unprecedented pressure where sometimes they couldn't make it off the wards.

Lara, staff member on the Benjamin Weir Ward said:

"I cannot find the words to thank you all for your amazing and delicious food and beautiful messages of support during such difficult times.

"Not having to worry about preparing food to take to work and knowing there would be treats and messages to look forward to has made such a difference to all of us. Thank you so much."

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