Book A Table
Throughout September and October we’re helping raise funds for our chosen charity, Action Against Hunger. We are adding a discretionary £1 onto bills, as well as other methods to help drive support and funds.
Action Against Hunger is a global charity committed to saving the lives of malnourished children in over 55 countries.
Ahead of the partnership, we caught up with Judith Escribano, Deputy Director of Communications, at Action Against Hunger to find out more about the charity and the work that they do.
Q1) What are the main problems your organisation is tackling?
Action Against Hunger tackles life-threatening hunger and malnutrition around the world. We believe it is unacceptable that, in world that produces enough food to feed its entire population, over three billion people cannot even afford the cheapest, healthy diet. Poor diets leading to malnutrition aren’t a matter of personal choice; the world’s poorest people simply cannot access or afford to eat a healthy diet. Malnutrition is a direct threat to every child’s right to good health and wellbeing. It can hold back their life chances and prospects for escaping poverty, denying them the chance to build a better future and help their communities prosper.
Q2)Where around the world do you work?
In 2022 alone, we assisted 28 million people in 55 countries around the globe. We work in some of the poorest countries around the world – from Africa to Asia, the Middle East to Latin America and the Caribbean. Due to the Covid crisis and increasing rates of poverty in the UK, we recently started assisting people right here in Britain as well, supporting community food pantries in Lewisham, Sandwell and Frome.
Q3)What are your main methods of fundraising?
We raise funds from a range of sources: members of the British public make one-off gifts or regular donations. We raise funds from trusts, foundations, big businesses and institutional sources, such as the UK government. But we also receive funding from the food and hospitality industry, for which we are incredibly grateful, especially since the sector has been experiencing such enormous challenges themselves in recent years. One of the initiatives we are particularly proud of is the our restaurant campaign, Love Food Give Food. This is when restaurants, pubs, and hotels agree to ask their diners to pop an extra pound on their bill to donate to our life-saving work around the world. The Love Food Give Food Campaign is going into its 12th year, and the hospitality industry has now raised over £3.5 million, which is enough to treat over 83,000 children suffering from life-threatening hunger.
Q4) How long has your organisation been helping people for?
Action Against Hunger was originally founded in France in 1979 and was registered as a charity in the UK in 1995.
Q5) What makes your job so fulfilling?
Oh my goodness: there are so many reasons why my job is fulfilling. First and foremost, I work in a sector whose aim it is to improve the lives of others. What can be better than that?
Secondly, I am working for a charity with an incredible mission: to free the world from hunger. It’s immoral and disgusting that so many people are going hungry in the world right now. And it’s not due to over-population as some of the cynics say. It’s due to over-consumption in some areas and an unequal distribution of resources throughout the world. Sadly we live in a world where many people are driven to buy and consume as much as possible – whether that be food, drink, clothing, technology, jewellery, cars … just stuff. And all of this is at the expense of other people. The more we consume – and the more we consume cheaply – the more other people suffer. If you’re getting something cheap, it’s because someone is being exploited elsewhere – the workers producing the goods are not being paid enough or they’re working ridiculously long hours or they’re working in really poor conditions, What’s more, the more we consume, the more carbon emissions we emit, resulting in more droughts, floods and wildfires around the world. And the more climate-related disasters around the world, the more suffering, destruction and hunger.
We are incredibly grateful to all the restaurants, donors, businesses, and trusts and foundations who continue to donate to us in these difficult times, so that we can work to eradicate hunger around the world
I am also lucky – I work in a charity with a huge number of massively committed people; it’s inspiring to work with them.
Dine with D&D London this September and October and help raise funds for such an important cause.
