The Felix Project: Chelsea and England star Reece James donates Euro 2020 match shirt to help raise funds for food charity

England footballer Reece James has backed a donation drive to help The Felix Project feed vulnerable school children this summer.

The Champions League winner will be donating his UEFA Euro 2020 match day shirt from England’s opening group game against Croatia to help encourage donations to London-based food charity, The Felix Project.

The charity’s new venture ‘Felix’s Kitchen’ launches this summer in Tower Hamlets, in association with The Evening Standard.

It will provide cooked ready meals from surplus food, that would have otherwise been wasted, to families struggling over the summer holidays.

The meals will be delivered by Felix volunteers to children’s charities and holiday programmes in the boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Newham – where child poverty rates are some of the highest in Europe.

Donations of a mimimum £5 made on James’ fundraising page will automatically be in with a chance to win the England defender’s match day shirt.

The Chelsea FC star, who has supported the charity for the last two years, including volunteering at their depots during lockdown, said: “Whilst many of us are looking forward to summer holidays, we must remember that there are a number of children who will be not so happy for schools to be closed.

“Felix’s Kitchen will make fresh meals from donated surplus food for holiday clubs and other places that are providing meals for hungry children during the long summer holidays,” he added.

Scheduled to open in July, the kitchen will be set over 4,400 sq ft, operating six days a week, 50 weeks a year, aiming to deliver 100,000 meals by September.

Felix’s Kitchen is being supported by the Evening Standard, which donated £1M towards it from the Evening Standard dispossessed fund.

“It says a lot about Reece that even during the biggest tournament of his career he’s thinking about how we can get meals to people in need in Tower Hamlets, the most deprived area of Europe,” Justin Byam Shaw, founder of The Felix Project, said.

It is hoped that with enough donations and support, the kitchen will cook and distribute 1.5 million meals a year.

James will announce the winner of his signed England shirt on June 29, by randomly selecting the name of one of the people who has made a donation .

To make a donation, visit James’ fundraising page here.

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